II 


1 


^ 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO       i 


[See  p.  166 

I     STRUCK    SO    VIOLENTLY    AT    THE    DISGUSTING     FACES 
NEAREST  TO   ME" 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

A    TRUE    STORY 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 

THE  MARTYRDOM  OF 

AN  EMPRESS" 

ILLUSTRATED 


HARPER    &•     BROTHERS     PUBLISHERS 
NEW     YORK     AND      LONDON 

1902 


Copyright,  1902,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHI 


/<//  rightt  reserved. 

Published  November,  1901. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

I  STRUCK  SO  VIOLENTLY  AT  THE  DISGUSTING 

FACES  NEAREST  TO  ME" Frontispiect 

HE  THREW  HIS  SILK  HAT  HIGH  INTO  THE  AIR, 
AND  GAVE  VENT  TO  A  LOUD  AND  RESOUND- 
ING HURRAH" Facing  /.  44 

NIGHT  HAD  ALREADY  FALLEN  AS  I  RODE 

THROUGH  THE  STREETS  OF  OLD  CAIRO"  .  "  Il6 

'  THROW  UP  YOUR  HANDS,   LUIGI  EFFENDI '  "          "          126 

'  I  WILL  WREAK  SUCH  VENGEANCE  AS  MAY 

WELL  BE  AN  EXAMPLE  TO  ALL  TRAITORS  !'  "  "  158 

I  WATCHED  THEM  WALKING  BRISKLY  ALONG 
THE  SIDEWALK,  SWINGING  BETWEEN  THEM, 
BY  ITS  MASSIVE  HANDLES,  THE  HEAVY 
BOX " "  446 

'  CONFOUND  IT,  SHE'S  MY  SISTER/  SAID  BER- 

TRAND,  WRATHFULLY" "  520 

SA  MAJESTE  BEBE  " "  532 

MY  AMERICAN  HOME" "          540 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 


CHAPTER  I 

"  Give  me  no  gems,  dear  heart,  I  pray," 
My  lady  said.     "  What  true  love  may 

Endure  to  touch  them?     Treacherous,  cold, 
Reptilian  things,  with  crime  enrolled, 
Would  they  their  histories  betray! 

"  Rubies  are  blood.     Can  aught  allay 
Those  evil  fires  that  day  by  day 
Burn  in  the  opal's  heart  of  gold? 
Give  me  no  gems! 

"  Emeralds  are  eyes  of  hate,  men  say ; 
There's  dull  revenge  in  sapphires ;  gray 
Sad  ghosts  would  whisper  from  the  mould 
•The  pearl's  white  pestilence,  and  hold 
The  diamond  crafty  scheming.     Nay, 
Give  me  no  gems!"  M.  M. 

THE  day  was  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  golden 
twilight  fell  with  infinite  softness  over  the  Egyptian 
landscape.  A  great,  round  moon,  suffused  with  the 
rosy  blush  of  her  awakening  hour,  rose  above  the  palm- 
trees,  casting  her  magic  all  over  the  gardens,  where 
each  branch,  twig,  and  leaf  was  rapidly  assuming  a 
sparkle  of, liquid  diamonds.  Weary  little  birds  chir- 
ruped and  twittered  with  a  silky  sound  of  ruffled  wings 
as  they  settled  themselves  to  sleep  among  the  camellia 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

bushes,  while  in  the  river-bed  the  piercing  note  of  the 
hoopoe  and  the  sobbing  voice  of  a  crane  were  plainly 
heard  in  the  silence  of  the  advancing  night,  broken 
at  regular  intervals  by  the  call  of  the  Muezzin— a  har- 
monious "Allah  ho  Akbar  O— O— O— O— Allah  ho 
Akbar  " — coming  in  a  melancholy  wail  from  over  the 
dark  walls  of  old  Cairo. 

With  startling  suddenness  lights  appeared  behind 
the  many  windows  of  the  house,  as  if  the  servants,  dis- 
mayed by  the  gathering  gloom  within,  were  swiftly 
running  to  and  fro  to  repair  a  piece  of  unusual  neglect. 
Surprised  and  amused  by  this  semi-theatrical  display, 
I  reined  in,  and,  signalling  my  sdis  to  stop  his  airy 
flight,  I  sat  in  my  saddle  watching  the  gleam  of  oil 
and  wax  battling  with  the  now  brilliant  glow  of  the 
Oriental  moon  and  fast-appearing  stars.  I  had  been 
riding  during  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  the 
sight  of  home  produced  a  briskening  effect  upon  me, 
with  its  near  vista  of  bath,  tea,  and  well-earned  repose; 
so  in  a  moment  I  was  off  again  at  a  stretching  gallop 
under  the  transparent  shadow  of  the  carob-trees  lining 
the  avenue. 

Dismounting  at  a  side  entrance  I  ran  up  the  terrace 
steps  and  opened  the  glass  door  of  the  study,  where  I 
expected  to  find  my  husband  sitting  by  his  reading- 
lamp,  as  was  his  invariable  custom  at  that  hour.  The 
large,  high-ceiled  room,  however,  was  untenanted,  save 
by  a  huge  sloughi  of  preternatural  shagginess,  who  rose 
to  greet  me  with  a  lazy  yawn  and  a  solemn  wag  of  his 
feathery  tail.  A  glance  at  the  deserted  writing-table 
showed  me  the  habitual  and  characteristic  litter  of 
papers,  flanked  by  a  row  of  reference -books  —  Whit- 
taker's  Almanac,  Debrett's  Peerage,  an  Arab  lexicon, 
etc. — in  a  blue  morocco  case,  and  a  pile  of  letters  and 
telegrams,  as  well  as  numerous  docketed  manuscripts 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

lying  in  little  heaps,  with  a  riding-crop  and  a  pair  of 
gloves  carelessly  flung  on  top  of  all.  I  moved  the  lamp 
slightly  in  order  to  get  a  better  view  of  a  delicately 
carved  ivory  netzkd,  purchased  a  day  or  two  before,  and 
suddenly  the  light  shone  upon  an  object  from  which 
brilliant  points  of  color  were  brutally  refracted.  With 
a  gasp  of  astonishment  I  bent  forward  and  lifted  from 
some  crumpled  folds  of  tissue-paper  a  gorgeous  golden 
band  of  exquisite  workmanship,  thickly  set  with  great 
jewels,  a  thing  to  dazzle  the  eye  and  make  the  mouth 
water  with  admiration.  Rubies  of  lordly  size  and 
color  formed  a  central  ring,  framed  above  and  below 
by  double  rows  of  immense  diamonds,  while  sapphires 
of  wonderful,  velvety,  luminous  blue,  large  gleam- 
ing pearls  and  flawless  emeralds,  formed  a  design  of 
leaves  and  blossoms  encircled  by  brilliants  of  rare 
lustre.  Amazed  beyond  expression,  I  held  this  won- 
derful ornament  under  the  direct  rays  of  the  lamp, 
and  contemplated  it  with  something  very  like  awe. 
As  I  slowly  moved  it  to  and  fro,  gem  after  gem 
burned  with  living  color,  like  globes  lit  from  within 
by  red,  blue,  green,  and  blinding  white  flames.  It  was 
undoubtedly  very  ancient,  the  golden  setting  having 
acquired  a  mellowness  which  no  artificer's  cunning 
could  have  imparted  to  a  modern  piece;  moreover,  the 
metal  was  deeply  scratched  in  several  places,  and  the 
catch  of  the  clasp  worked  with  the  ease  of  long  use. 
How  it  came  to  be  there,  however,  was  more  than  I 
could  imagine,  for  of  course  it  seemed  impossible  that 
Fred  should  have  bought  it,  even  in  the  mysterious  treas- 
ure-filled booths  of  the  bazaar,  as  one  glance  at  its 
almost  uncanny  and  barbarous  magnificence  sufficed 
to  show  tnat  it  was  of  fabulous  value — certainly  not  an 
object  to  be  picked  up  at  a  bargain  during  a  morning's 
idle  loitering.  Why,  also,  had  so  covetable  a  jewel  been 

3 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

left  unprotected,  at  the  mercy  of  any  servant  happen- 
ing to  enter  the  room? 

Nothing  in  my  two  years'  Egyptian  experience  as 
the  wife  of  a  man  engaged  on  a  secret  mission  offered 
a  clew  to  the  enigma,  and  I  sat  down  in  absolute  be- 
wilderment, trying  to  puzzle  it  out.  Of  a  truth,  I  felt 
vaguely  uneasy,  and  I  am  ashamed  to  say  that  for  a 
second  or  two,  in  the  very  innermost  recesses  of  my 
brain,  there  lurked  a  sort  of  superstitious  fear. 

Suddenly,  from  the  other  side  of  the  river,  there  rose 
a  dismal,  shrill  whimper,  rising  and  swelling  to  a  ghast- 
ly shriek,  and  ending  in  a  long-drawn,  miserable  wail, 
and  so  ruffled  were  my  nerves  that  I  started  to  my  feet, 
although  I  well  knew  that  it  was  only  a  jackal  "sing- 
ing "  at  the  moon. 

These  were  unquiet  times.  The  rebellion  of  Arabi 
Pasha  had  but  recently  been  quelled,  and  the  so-called 
peace  of  Egypt  was  a  mere  thin  crust,  barely  covering 
the  unrest  of  Islam.  The  Khedive  was  desperately 
clinging  to  his  tottering  throne,  and  the  British  army 
of  occupation  had  become  so  unpopular  that  all  for- 
eigners were  held  in  distrust  and  hatred  by  natives 
high  and  low.  Indeed,  the  whole  atmosphere  was  preg- 
nant with  strife,  intrigue,  and  treachery. 

Through  the  open  casement  at  my  side  I  gazed  ab- 
sent-mindedly upon  the  beautiful  scene — a  nocturne 
in  blue  and  silver  of  incomparable  splendor — so  calm 
and  quiet  and  restful ;  and  yet  a  few  short  miles  away 
there  lay  the  savage  desert,  and  all  it  hid  of  menace  in 
its  tawny  folds,  while  close  at  hand  muttered  the  spirit 
of  Mohammedan  discontent.  Snatching  the  mysteri- 
ous jewel  once  more  from  the  table  I  passed  out  of 
the  study,  followed  by  my  sloughi  Ali-Baba.  Slowly 
I  crossed  the  hall  and  entered  my  room,  the  dog  at  my 
heels,  and  stood  gazing  around  the  large  apartment  as 

4 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

if  I  had  never  seen  it  before.     Indeed,  my  surroundings 
seemed  curiously  strange,  and  I  shuddered  slightly  in 
spite  of  the  soft,  bright  coloring  of  the  draperies,  the 
pictures,  the  velvety  rugs,  and  the  delicately  frescoed 
ceiling,  where  subtle  azures,  faint  greens,  and  tender 
roseate  hues  were  deftly  mingled.     The  windows  were 
latticed  with  Moucharabieh  work  of  carved  sandal- 
wood,  allowing  the  air  to  enter  freely,  but  lending  to 
the  place  a  delightful  suggestion  of  repose  and  peace. 
The  tinkle  of  the  fountain  in  the  adjoining  patio — a 
little  paradise  of  flowers,  verdure,  and  lacelike  marble 
traceries — fell  refreshingly  on  the  ear,  and  stirred  in  its 
delicious  coolness  the  strong  perfume  of  many  tropical 
blossoms.     This  intoxicating  fragrance  was  blended 
with  the  very  air  one  breathed,  and  was  eminently 
characteristic  of  this  entire  portion  of  the  house.    Yet 
even  that  soothing  solitude  did  not  relieve  the  disquiet 
of  my  mind,  which  whirled  in  a  really  tiresome  inten- 
sity of  thought.     I  went  to  a  window,  drew  aside  the 
curtains,  and  looked  out  through  the  lattice;  then, 
drawing  them  impatiently  to  again,  I  sat  down  on  a 
couch.     I  hardly  noticed  the  light  of  the  shaded  lamps 
hanging  high  from  the  ceiling,  for  the  whole  place  to 
me  seemed  weirdly  illuminated  by  the  dazzling  gems  in 
my  hand,  which   appeared  to  increase  and  multiply 
into  a  vista  of  brilliancy,  such  as  Aladdin  must  have 
seen  when  he  descended    into  the   enchanted    cave. 
Rubies  like  newly  drawn  blood,  sapphires  as  pure  and 
brilliant  as  the  sky  of  an  Egyptian  night,  emeralds 
similar  to  the  shady  forest  pools  of  midsummer,  each 
precious  stone  alive  and  instinct  with  the  odors  of  its 
native  clime — the  balmy  spices  of  Ceylon,  the  rose- 
laden  atmosphere  of  Persia,  the  dreamy  breath  of  India ! 
The  illusion  was  so  potent,  so  stupefying,  that  I  flung 
the  jewels  among  the  cushions  of  the  sofa,  angry  at 

5 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

myself  and  my  unaccountable  moodiness.  As  I  did  so 
a  rapid  step  paused  at  my  door,  and  after  a  hasty  knock, 
which  I  had  no  time  to  answer,  Fred,  my  husband, 
looking  flushed  and  disturbed,  entered  hurriedly. 

"  Have  you  been  in  my  room,  and  have  you  noticed 
some  jewels  lying  on  the  table?"  he  said,  breathlessly. 
There  were  beads  of  perspiration  on  his  forehead,  and 
his  voice  had  an  odd  huskiness  about  it. 

"Yes,  I  have;  but  what  in  the  name  of  wonder  is  the 
matter  with  you?"  I  exclaimed,  in  surprise,  so  dismayed 
did  he  look. 

"Sit  down  here,"  I  continued,  pushing  the  cushions 
aside  to  make  room  for  him,  and  thus  uncovering  the 
splendid  circlet  lying  where  I  had  flung  it.  With  an 
exclamation  of  intense  relief  he  caught  it  up  nervously 
in  both  hands. 

"Why,  Fred,  what  ails  you?"  I  said,  annoyed  by 
this  unusual  display  of  agitation. 

"Good  God!"  he  retorted,  fretfully;  "don't  you  un- 
derstand that  when  I  missed  this  odious  thing  from  my 
room  I  thought  it  was  gone  for  good,  which  would  be 
nice  for  me!" 

"  Now,  my  dear  boy,  you  must  really  tell  me  what  all 
this  fuss  is  about,  and  especially  by  what  miraculous 
dispensation  of  Providence  so  regal  an  ornament  came 
into  your  possession." 

The  strong,  naked  rays  from  a  lamp  in  the  hall 
stretched  through  the  open  door  and  touched  the  gems, 
piercing  them  to  the  very  centre,  from  which  rainbow 
sparks  flashed  back  again. 

"This,"  said  Fred,  "was  one  of  the  treasures  most 
prized  by  a  long  line  of  sultans  until  it  passed  into  the 
possession  of  Ismail  Pasha — how  and  when  is  not  clear- 
ly known  —  and  from  his  into  that  of  Tewfik.  The 
latter,  it  appears,  wants  to  dispose  of  it;  in  fact,  as  I 

6 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

am  given  to  understand,  it  is  a  matter  of  almost  vital 
importance  that  he  should  do  so  without  delay,  for 
money  runs  low  in  his  coffers,  and  money  means  every- 
thing to  him  in  the  present  state  of  affairs.  Mahmoud 
Bey  brought  the  thing  here  this  afternoon  and  forgot 
it  on  my  desk  when  we  left  together  for  Abdeen  Palace, 
where  his  Highness  awaited  me." 

"Did  Mahmoud  Bey  expect  you  to  buy  this  magnif- 
icent affair?"  I  interrupted,  with  mild  sarcasm.  "Allow 
me  to  point  out  that  your  explanations  lack  lucidity." 

Fred  got  up  and  lighted  a  cigarette. 

"  Oh,  bother !"  he  exclaimed,  impatiently.  "  Of  course 
I  suppose  I  should  have  told  you  that  he  came  here 
to  find  out  whether  I  could  secretly  dispose  of  it  and 
convey  the  funds  to  him.  I  told  him  that  this  is 
impossible,  for  the  Collier  de  la  Favorite  —  as  the 
blessed  nuisance  is  called — is  too  celebrated  among 
Orientals  to  admit  of  its  being  sold  here,  or  elsewhere 
in  the  East,  without  attracting  wide-spread  and,  under 
the  circumstances,  undesirable  attention,  so  all  that 
remains  for  me  to  do  now  is  to  go  and  return  the 
'  Favorite's  necklace '  to  that  feather-brained  ass,  Mah- 
moud, who  will  be  wild  when  he  misses  it." 

"Stop  a  minute,"  I  entreated,  with  a  gesture  of  some 
irritation.  "Am  I  to  understand  that  you  are  about 
to  mix  yourself  up  with  the  private  affairs  of  our  esti- 
mable friend  the  Viceroy  ?  The  stupidity  of  men  truly 
exceeds  all  bounds!  ...  I  beg  your  pardon,  by-the 
way,  but  for  Heaven's  sake  don't  be  absurd,  Fred,  and 
do  not,  above  all  things,  object  to  my  telling  you  plain- 
ly, and  at  once,  what  I  think  of  all  this.  Mahmoud 
Bey  can  wait  a  little  while  to  recover  his  treasure — 
serves  him  right,  too,  for  being  so  careless  .  .  .  !  Can't 
you  see  wnat  a  dangerous  game  he  is  trying  to  make 
you  play?  The  position  you  occupy  here  as  secret 

7 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

and  unofficial  hyphen  between  England  and  the  Vice- 
roy, is  in  all  conscience  fraught  with  sufficient  diffi- 
culties, but  such  as  it  is  we  must  make  the  best  of 
it.  The  moment,  however,  that  you  allow  your  good- 
heartedness  and  execrable  anxiety  to  help  everybody 
out  of  trouble,  to  drag  you  into  the  Khedive's  usually 
more  than  questionable  private  interests,  you  will  find 
yourself  in  an  untenable  position." 

"Like  Leotard  crossing  the  Danube  in  a  wheelbar- 
row!" 

"  Don't  be  funny,  and  do  listen  to  me  I  I  was  about 
to  say — and  I  wish  you  would  give  me  your  undivided 
attention  for  a  few  minutes — that  such  a  course  of  action 
on  your  part  would  be  the  most  sickening  folly.  You 
simply  cannot  afford  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it. 
Let  the  Honorable  Bey  and  his  satellites  barter  the 
Viceroy's  entire  regalia,  including  the  half  ton  or  so 
of  diamonds  which  lie  fallow  in  the  Harim,  but  the  atti- 
tude of  guardian  angel  to  his  High-Mightiness  is  one 
that  cannot  be  assumed  by  you  or  any  other  honest  gen- 
tleman. You  know  that  Mahmoud  is  jealous  of  your 
influence  and  confidential  position  with  the  Khedive, 
and  that  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  that  any  trans- 
action managed  by  him  will  not  stand  investigation. 
Don't  you  see  that  if  you  associate  yourself  with  him 
you  will  bear  the  blame  of  any  questionable  dealings 
on  his  part?  How  glad  he  would  be  to  discredit  you; 
and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  how  do  you  know  this  is 
not  a  plot  to  do  so?" 

That  Fred  was  far  from  pleased  was  evident.  He 
flung  his  half-smoked  cigarette  brusquely  away  and 
remained  silent,  angrily  gnawing  his  mustache. 

"I  suppose  you  intend  to  have  your  own  way  in  this 
matter?"  he  said,  at  length. 

"Of  course  I  do!     You  poor  old  boy,  how  you  do 

8 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

put  your  foot  in  it  sometimes!  But  that's  often  the 
way  with  clever  men,  and  especially  with  decent  ones, 
when  they  are  dealing  with  scamps  like  those  forming 
the  entourage  of  the  estimable  Tewfik." 

My  lord  and  master's  smarting  ill-humor  was  fast 
evaporating. 

"Oh,  well,  perhaps  you  are  right,"  he  conceded, 
almost  amiably;  "but  how  the  deuce  am  I  to  get  out 
of  it  now,  after  half  promising  Mahmoud  to  find  out 
whether  the  thing  cannot  be  sold  in  Europe?" 

I  considered  a  moment,  then,  with  sudden  resolve, 
said,  quickly:  "Look  here,  Fred,  leave  all  that  to  me. 
I  think  I  can  handle  our  worthy  friend  admirably  and 
most  effectively.  Are  you  willing,  however,  to  let  me 
manage  as  I  think  fit,  and  not  to  appear  upon  the  scene 
when  Mahmoud  comes  to  inquire  whether  he  has  left 
here  by  mistake  a  little  unostentatious  trinket  worth  a 
couple  of  millions  or  so?  For,  if  so,  I  will  see  him,  neg- 
ligently return  the  insignificant  bauble,  and,  what's 
more,  I  will  put  a  flea  in  his  ear  par-dessus  le  marche. 
Please,  your  Majesty,  do  not  interfere  till  I  ask  you  to 
do  so!" 

"  You  dictatorial  woman,"  he  said,  laughing.  "Still, 
it  is  rather  nice  of  you,  Pussy,  to  take  all  that  trouble 
to  prevent  me  from  making  a  fool  of  myself,  as  you 
evidently  think  I  would." 

"Hm — "  I  murmured,  and  was  about  to  make  some 
conciliatory  and  soothing  remark  when  the  double 
stroke  of  the  gong  announcing  visitors  frustrated  my 
excellent  intentions,  and  I  exclaimed :  "  Oh,  talk  of  the 
devil ! — here  surely  comes  Mahmoud,  hot-foot  in  quest  of 
his  lost  pledge. "  As  I  spoke  my  groom  of  the  chambers 
entered  and  announced  that  his  Excellency  Mahmoud 
Bey  was  waiting  my  pleasure  in  the  drawing-room. 

"Did  he  ask  for  me,  Sahla?" 

9 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

"No,  my  lady,  he  asked  for  my  master,  but  I  told  his 
Excellency  that  your  ladyship  was  alone." 

Sahla,  a  pure -bred  and  exceedingly  stately  looking 
Arab,  was  a  remarkably  sagacious  and  well-trained 
attendant,  and  possessed  a  finesse  that  would  have  done 
credit  to  many  a  diplomat.  In  truth,  this  priceless 
quality  amounted  with  him  to  downright  intuition, 
and  caused  him  invariably  to  do  the  right  thing,  un- 
prompted, at  the  right  moment. 

I  nodded,  well  pleased,  and  with  a  gay  au  revoir  to 
Fred  left  the  room. 

Mahmoud  Bey,  the  Khedive's  confidential  aide-de- 
camp, was  a  youngish  man,  with  a  rather  handsome, 
swarthy  face,  a  commanding  presence,  and  a  deformed 
smile.  He  was,  moreover,  that  unpleasantly  cynical  and 
but  half -polished  individual,  a  Europeanized  Turk,  a 
person  thinking  ill  of  all  women  and  of  most  men,  and 
scenting  vice  in  every  nature.  He  himself  was  a  sin- 
gularly evil  man,  who  loved  to  wallow,  and  had  wal- 
lowed all  his  life,  in  foulness,  being  upheld  in  this 
unsavory  purpose  by  a  pleasant  certainty  that  his 
tastes  in  such  matters  were  shared  by  all  those  be- 
longing to  his  own  lofty  and  enlightened  status!  He 
was,  of  course,  thoroughly  unscrupulous;  also  he  was 
extremely  ambitious  and  greedy,  and  greatly  imbued 
with  a  sense  of  his  own  pre-eminence,  though  out- 
wardly disagreeably  obsequious,  bland,  and  suave. 
Indeed,  the  mere  fact  of  his  claiming  to  be  the  Khe- 
dive's intermediary  in  the  affair  of  the  great  jewel 
made  me,  ipse  facto,  look  upon  it  as  a  dangerous  and 
doubtful  business. 

When  I  entered  the  drawing-room  I  found  that  for 
once  his  appearance  was  disordered  and  his  usually 
mellifluous  voice  rough  and  uncontrolled,  and,  as  he  ut- 
tered the  customary  words  of  greeting,  I  could  not  help 

10 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

glancing  at  him  with  quiet  surprise,  for  all  trace  of 
comeliness  had  fled  from  his  somewhat  coarse  features, 
now  flushed  and  agitated.  His  chest  heaved  with 
excitement,  and  as  he  dropped  into  the  chair  I  indicated 
to  him  he  apparently  sought  vainly  to  regain  his  cus- 
tomary social  air. 

"What  ails  your  Excellency?"  I  asked,  with  polite 
interest. 

He  made  a  very  visible  effort  to  master  his,  under  the 
circumstances,  pardonable  emotions,  and  in  almost  his 
usual  elaborately  refined  and  over-polite  voice — a  voice 
of  intolerable  and  nauseating  oiliness — he  replied: 

"  Thank  you,  thank  you,  my  dearest  lady,  for  deign- 
ing to  receive  me  in  this  unceremonious  fashion.  I 
am  indeed  greatly  obliged  to  you,  for  I  am  in  trouble, 
and  your  good  husband  being  absent,  if  you  will  most 
courteously  permit  me  to  do  so,  I  will  tell  you  what 
brings  me  here." 

There  I  recognized  Mahmoud,  for  he  had  entirely 
recaptured  himself,  his  meretricious  smile,  and  his 
customary  damning  crescendo  of  extreme  gentleman- 
liness. 

Mahmoud,  agitated,  brutal,  and  human,  was  not 
Mahmoud  at  all;  but  Mahmoud,  laboriously  polished, 
carrying  himself  with  military  erectness  in  his  well-fit- 
ting, much-gilded  uniform,  self-conscious,  self-possess- 
ed, and  displaying  the  swaggering  ostentation  of  de- 
meanor common  to  poseurs  of  his  kidney,  was  an  old 
acquaintance.  This  catlike  ease  and  softness  were 
among  the  chief  causes  of  my  aversion  for  him,  but  at 
least  his  present  attitude  was  familiar,  while  his  appear- 
ance just  now  had  been  a  surprise  to  me.  I  settled 
myself  comfortably  on  an  ottoman,  and,  lighting  a 
cigarette,  said,  with  a  very  proper  show  of  sympathy: 

"I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  the  world  is  treating  you 

ii 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

badly.  That  seems  quite  unfair  on  the  part  of  the 
world,  and  I  am,  I  can  assure  you,  more  than  ready  to 
assist  you,  if  it  be  in  my  power  to  do  so!" 

"Thank  you,  thank  you  again,"  he  repeated,  at- 
tempting to  convey  by  an  impassioned  glance  of  his 
bold,  black  eyes  all  the  gratitude  which  he  did  not  feel, 
and  with  a  courtly  bow  continued : 

"  The  truth  is  that,  intrusted  by  my  gracious  master 
with  an  errand  of  some  moment,  I  have  been — oh,  quite 
unintentionally — a  trifle  careless  in  its  fulfilment,  and 
I  am,  consequently,  a  little  annoyed  and  perplexed." 

"  Careless,  my  dear  Bey !  You  would  not  have  me 
believe  that  of  you!  Pray  do  not  depart  from  your 
usual  refreshing  frankness  in  thus  falsely  accusing 
yourself." 

His  fatuity  was  so  monumental  that  he  did  not  even 
wince. 

"  Indeed,  I  am  quite  transparent,  as  I  ever  am,  my 
dear  lady,  for,  much  to  my  shame,  I  have  to  confess 
that  I  mislaid  a  piece  of  jewelry  which  I  had  been 
requested  to — " 

"Have  repaired?"  I  suggested,  innocently. 

"  Well,  no,  not  precisely  that,  but  which,  in  sjiort,  had 
been  intrusted  to  me;  and  as  it  is  of  some  value,  I 
acknowledge  that  I  am  somewhat  upset." 

I  could  hardly  repress  a  smile.  "This  is  unfortu- 
nate," I  remarked,  lighting  another  cigarette  and 
pushing  the  box  invitingly  towards  him.  He  looked 
bored  and  a  little  uneasy,  declined  my  delicate  atten- 
tion with  a  majestic  wave  of  his  tightly  gloved  hand, 
and,  after  bowing  his  renewed  thanks,  resumed : 

"It  will  be  unfortunate,  of  course,  if  my  quest  is 
unsuccessful,  because,  you  understand,  his  Highness 
attaches  a  certain  value  to  this  jewel  principally  for  the 
sake  of  association." 

12 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"A  gage  d' amour,  very  likely/'  I  said,  tentatively; 
"but  interested  as  I  always  am  by  anything  touching 
your  gracious  master,,  my  dear  Bey,  or  even  yourself, 
I  fail  to  see  where  my  usefulness  comes  in." 

Figuratively  speaking,  Mahmoud  Bey  threw  up  his 
hands. 

"Well,"  he  said,  with  some  discomposure,  "you  see 
I  had  the  jewel  with  me  this  afternoon  when  I  called 
upon  your  husband.  We  started  rather  precipitately 
together  for  the  palace,  and  a  little  while  ago  I  discov- 
ered that  I  must  either  have  lost  it  on  the  way  to  Ab- 
deen — which  seems  difficult,  as  we  drove  there  in  my 
own  carriage — or  else  have  left  it  here  in  my  hurry. 
Would  you,  my  dearest  lady,  be  therefore  so  extremely 
kind  as  to  allow  me  to  search  for  it  in  your  husband's 
study.  I  took  it  out  of  its  wrappings  there,  and  possi- 
bly may  have  dropped  it  on  the  floor." 

This  time  I  smiled  outright.  The  situation  was  be- 
coming clear  to  me. 

"Is  it  a  very  small  object?"  I  asked,  indifferently. 

Mahmoud  looked  as  though  he  were  sitting  on  thorns. 

"Yes — that  is,  no!"  he  exclaimed,  nervously.^  "I'm 
sure  I  don't  remember!  Please  let  me  go  and  find  out. 
I  will  not  be  a  minute,"  and  he  rose  precipitately. 

I  flicked  the  ashes  from  my  cigarette,  and,  quite  un- 
moved either  by  his  contradictory  statements  and  pal- 
pable embarrassment,  or  by  his  evident  wish  to  take 
time  by  the  forelock,  I  said,  speculatively : 

"How  very  strange;  this  really  is  a  day  of  jewelled 
surprises,  for  when  I  came  home  an  hour  ago  from 
Helouan — a  very  charming  place,  by-the-way,  and  one 
of  my  favorite  spots  in  this  admirable  country  of  yours 
— I  found  lying  on  Fred's  desk,  among  a  disgraceful 
litter  of  papers,  I  am  bound  to  state — do  have  a  ciga- 
rette, my  dear  Bey,  they  were  sent  to  me  this  morning 

13 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

by  the  Khedive,  and  are  really  deliciously  fresh  and 
fragrant — " 

"What  did  you  find?"  interrupted  my  baffled  and 
enraged  interlocutor,  sitting  down  again  with  a  smoth- 
ered groan. 

"Oh,  what  indeed?  I  am  sure  you  would  never 
guess.  Now,  would  you?" 

"I  am  not  good  at  guessing,"  he  answered,  stiffly, 
clearly  doing  himself  the  utmost  violence  not  to  lay 
murderous  hands  on  me. 

"I  must  not  keep  you  longer  in  suspense,  then/'  I 
laughed,  "  and  although  the  matter  will,  peradventure, 
be  of  but  small  interest,  I  will  tell  you  that  I  found,  as 
I  was  saying,  amid  my  husband's  tumbled  papers,  a 
marvellous  band  of  dull  gold,  simply  paved  with  price- 
less gems,  and  quite  uncommonly  perfect  both  in  de- 
sign, material,  and  workmanship." 

Here  Mahmoud  in  his  agitation  half  rose  from  his 
chair  again,  but,  looking  studiously  out  of  the  window, 
I  took  no  notice  of  this  new  sign  of  extreme  perturba- 
tion and  proceeded  evenly: 

"I  cannot  imagine  what  possessed  my  husband  to 
purchase  so  costly  an  object,  even  though  the  anni- 
versary of  our  marriage,  which  is  to-morrow,  would 
certainly  lend  color  to  his  extravagance.  Un  mari 
tres  galant  is  mine,  my  dear  Bey,  quite  extraordinarily 
so,  as  you  no  doubt  are  aware,  but  still  such  a  jewel  is 
quite  out  of  proportion  to  the — " 

The  confidential  aide-de-camp  could  endure  no  more. 
He  stood  up,  black  and  angry,  and  almost  shrieked : 

"What  have  you  done  with  it?" 

"With  what,"  I  asked,  in  mild  and  well-assumed 
astonishment. 

"With  my— with  his  Highness's— I  mean— with  the 
collar?" 

14 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"What  did  I  do  with — ?  Why,  my  dear  Bey,  what 
on  earth  can  you  mean?  Oh! — oh! — oh!"  I  uttered,  in 
three  different  tones.  "Surely  this  treasure  of  treas- 
ures, this  unique  and  wonderful  object,  cannot  be  the 
little  insignificant  souvenir  intrusted  to  your  care!  It 
really  cannot  be,  else  Oriental  hyperbole  is  a  myth." 

"That  is  as  your  ladyship  pleases/'  muttered  the 
Excellency,  now  without  a  vestige  of  suavity.  "Yet 
the  ornament  you  found  is  the  self -same  one  I  am 
looking  for.  It  is  a — an  heirloom,  a  rather  nice  one, 
to  be  sure,"  he  concluded,  as  if  he  were  talking  of  a 
mislaid  gaiter  button. 

"Quite  nice;  yes,  you  speak  truly,"  I  said,  with  a 
faint  sneer,  "  almost  too  much  so,  one  should  think,  to 
be  negligently  carried  about  during  an  afternoon  call. 
I  am  beginning  to  agree  with  you  that  you  were — 
what  did  you  call  it? — ah,  a  little  careless,  and  so,  if 
you  will  excuse  me,  I  will  fetch  from  my  room  where  I 
left  it  this  attractive  trinket,  for  I  perceive  that  it  is 
already  a  quarter-past  eight,  and  as  we  dine  punctu- 
ally at  nine,  I  will,  as  it  is,  barely  have  time  to  dress." 

I  got  up  and,  without  waiting  for  the  end  of  a  mur- 
mured apology,  passed  out  of  the  room,  leaving  the 
door  wide  open  behind  me. 

When  I  came  back  carrying  the  Collier  de  la  Favorite, 
I  detected  Mahmoud  Bey  in  the  act  of  surreptitiously 
arranging  his  hair  before  a  mirror.  All  his  blandness 
had  suddenly  returned,  and  he  greeted  me  with  a  beam- 
ing smile.  Singularly  enough  something  in  his  man- 
ner suggested  the  complacence  of  a  man  who  has  ac- 
complished a  purpose ;  but  the  impression  passed  from 
my  mind,  and  1  did  not  recollect  it  till  long  after- 
wards. 

"I  am  so. very  sorry  to  have  troubled  you,  dearest 
lady/'  he  purred.  "You  have  been  so  kind  and  dear 

15 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

in  your  patience  and  forbearance  that  I  cannot  suffi- 
ciently express  my  gratitude!" 

"Oh,  don't  mention  it,  it  is  always  such  a  pleasure 
to  be  of  use  to  you,  my  dear  Bey.  But  before  I  give 
you  back  this  glittering  object — upon  which  you  set  so 
little  value — do  tell  me  why  you  brought  it  all  the  way 
here  merely  to  show  to  Fred,  for  naturally  I  am  not 
exempt  from  some  curiosity  in  the  matter." 

He  probably  had  not  bargained  for  this,  and  seemed 
strangely  annoyed,  all  the  more  so  that  I  was  playfully 
holding  the  golden  band  out  of  his  reach  and  he  saw 
that  he  had  no  alternative  but  to  seemingly  defer  to 
my  wishes. 

"  Why,  it  came  about  quite  naturally.  You  see,  as  I 
happened  to  have  it  with  me,  I  thought  that  it  might 
prove  of  interest  to  your  husband,  who  is  such  a  con- 
noisseur of  rare  and  beautiful  things. "  Here  he  bowed, 
with  the  evident  intention  of  showing  that  he  had  said 
something  excessively  complimentary.  It  was  evi- 
dent, although  Fred  had  not  mentioned  it,  that  he  had 
begged  him  to  say  nothing  of  the  matter  to  me,  and 
that  he  himself  would,  under  no  consideration,  reveal 
his  motive.  I  therefore  accepted  his  explanation  quite 
simply,  and  merely  said,  with  another  smile : 

"  That  being  the  case,  I  relinquish  the  prize  into  your 
hands.  I  am  so  glad  that  it  was  at  no  time  in  any 
danger  of  being  lost.  I  need  not  add  that  I  will  care- 
fully guard  the  secret  of  your  little  mishap,  for  it  is 
delightful  to  think  that  our  dear  Khedive  will  remain 
unshaken  in  his  faith,  and  will  continue  to  entrust  you 
with  such  small  errands — as  you  call  them !  He  is  not 
always  so  lucky  in  his  selection  of  messengers,  I  as- 
sure you.  I  don't  know  if  you  have  heard  about  it, 
but  a  few  weeks  ago  he  confided  to  a  supposedly 
trustworthy  member  of  the  Household  a  parure  of 

16 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

emeralds  to  be  presented  to  the  wife  of  a  distinguished 
diplomatist,  whose  good-will — the  husband's,  of  course 
— he  was  seeking.  You  will  be  horrified,  I  am  sure, 
when  I  tell  you  that  when  the  jewels  reached  Countess 

de  M o  they  were  minus  one  bracelet,  one  pendant, 

and  one  row  of  the  beautiful  collar  intended  to  shine 
on  her  lovely  neck." 

The  aide-de-camp's  face  was  now  of  a  ghastly,  ashen 
hue,  and  all  his  new-found  assurance  had  disappear- 
ed; but  I  again  forebore  to  look  in  his  direction,  es- 
pecially as  a  mirror  opposite  which  we  stood  conven- 
iently reflected  his  every  change  of  countenance  and 
left  me  no  doubt  as  to  the  potency  of  the  blow  I  had 
just  dealt  him. 

"  Your  ladyship  is  well  informed,"  he  said,  hoarsely. 

"Not  particularly  so,  though  it  is  always  best,  I 
find,  to  be  aware  of  what  is  going  on  when  one  hap- 
pens to  be  the  wife  of  a  man  whose  misfortune  it  is  to 
be  entrusted  with  the  secret  interests  of  two  crowned 
heads.  My  small  knowledge,  however,  is  seldom  men- 
tioned by  me,  and  were  you  not  so  sincere  and  valued 
a  friend,  I  would  not,  even  with  a  view  of  doing  you  a 
service,  have  told  you  as  much  as  I  did.  It  is  natural 
that  I  should  do  so,  however,  seeing  that  you  are 
deeply  in  the  Khedive's  confidence,  and  that,  know- 
ing what  I  have  just  told  you,  you  may  now  be  in  a 
position  to  avert  such  contretemps  from  him  in  the 
future." 

"You  have  not,  I  take  it,  spoken  of  this — a — a — 
regrettable  incident  to  his  Highness?"  said  he,  in  the 
same  low,  uncertain  voice. 

"No,  of  course  not,"  I  replied,  carelessly  rearranging 

some  roses  in  a  vase  on  the  table  before  me.     "  I  am  not 

an  informer,  my  dear  Bey,  and  do  not  admire  the  r61e; 

moreover,  the  person  who  committed  this  little  faux-pas 

2  17 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

has  until  now  done  nothing  sufficiently  definite  to  arouse 
my  enmity.  That  being  the  case,  it  would  be  entirely 
gratuitous  on  my  part  were  I  to  take  any  such  step, 
or  even  to  advise  the  blissfully  ignorant  Countess  that 
the  emeralds  of  which  she  is  so  proud  were  diminished 
by  half  when  they  reached  her  hands.  And  now,  my 
dear  Bey,  that  we  have  brought  to  a  satisfactory  con- 
clusion our  amicable  and  confidential  little  chat,  let  me 
make  use  of  an  old  acquaintance's  privilege  and  beg 
you  to  let  me  go  and  get  dressed,  so  as  not  to  trespass 
upon  the  patience  of  my  guests  by  delaying  dinner 
too  long/' 

He  bent  low  over  the  hand  I  extended  to  him,  and 
his  manner  showed  an  almost  servile  deference  as  he 
backed  out  of  the  room,  but  the  ferocious  gleam  in  his 
crafty  eyes  was  sufficient  evidence  of  his  real  feelings. 

"Encore  un  ami  que  je  viens  de  me  faire,"  I  mut- 
tered, while  returning  to  my  room.  It  was  a  necessary 
evil,  nevertheless,  for  now  his  Excellency  Mahmoud 
Bey  would  probably  think  twice  before  trying  to  em- 
broil the  unsuspecting  Fred  in  any  of  those  intrigues 
from  the  muddy  depths  of  which  he  perseveringly  fished 
enormous  profits.  That  he  was  no  friend  of  ours  I 
had  long  been  aware,  but  I  flattered  myself  that  I  had 
now  cut  his  claws  for  him. 

We  had  an  interesting  dinner-party  that  evening, 
for  among  our  guests  was  Madame  Blavatsky,  who 
can  be  described  as  the  most  brilliant,  clever,  and  fas- 
cinating impostor  of  the  century.  She  was  by  no 
means — as  the  heads  of  the  Psychical  Society  of  Lon- 
don were  pleased  to  state — a  vulgar  adventuress,  but 
a  very  well-born,  very  well-bred,  and  extraordinarily 
shrewd  woman,  of  more  than  average  brains,  and  pos- 
sessing a  truly  marvellous  knowledge  of  human  nature. 
She  knew  more  about  Buddhism  and  all  its  weird  and 

18 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

hidden  lore  than  any  one  else  then  living,  having  had 
access  to  parchments,  manuscripts,  and  other  precious 
documents  which  no  other  European  had  ever  set  eyes 
upon,  and  having  also  penetrated  farther  into  Thibet 
— that  land  of  fearful  and  impenetrable  mystery — 
than  any  man  or  woman  belonging  to  an  alien  creed, 
but  still  her  Theosophy  was  but  a  cloak  under  which 
she  concealed  her  real  object  and  aim.  She  was  enor- 
mously stout,  and  her  face  was  quite  painfully  plain, 
yet  when  once  she  began  to  speak  she  held  everybody 
spellbound,  her  homeliness  was  forgotten,  and  her 
glorious,  dark-blue  eyes  —  exactly  matching  in  hue 
the  gigantic  sapphire  glittering  immutably  on  the 
third  finger  of  her  left  hand — positively  mesmerized 
her  hearers.  Nothing,  however,  was  more  amusing 
than  to  watch  the  profound  and  scarcely  veiled  con- 
tempt with  which  in  moments  of  abandon  she  referred 
to  and  even  treated  her  credulous  followers,  and  this 
alone  afforded  her  intimates  a  curious  insight  into  the 
peculiar  workings  of  her  mind.  A  singularly  danger- 
ous political  agent,  Madame  Blavatsky  was  a  sort  of 
Cagliostro  in  petticoats,  and,  thanks  to  the  mystic  nat- 
ure of  her  teachings,  which  powerfully  appealed  to  the 
impressionable  minds  of  Hindoo  Princes  and  Rajahs 
— forever  striving  to  attain  perfect  wisdom  and  conse- 
quent happiness  by  supernatural  means — she  obtained 
a  wellnigh  boundless  influence  over  them.  Her  power 
was  so  great  that  the  then  Viceroy  of  India,  the  Mar- 
quis of  D n  and  A  .  a  had  a  close  watch  set 

upon  her  every  movement,  and  looked  upon  her  as  an 
enemy  whom  the  British  government  could  not  afford 
to  despise.  She  resided  partly  at  Madras  and  partly  at 
Simla,  and  was  in  constant  and  intimate  correspondence 
with  Prince  D ff-K ff,  who  was  the  insti- 
gator of  the  Asiatic  policy  of  Russia,  and  also  with  Mr. 

19 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

S ff,  chief  of  the  Asiatic  Department  of  the  Foreign 

Office  at  St.  Petersburg,  and  more  feared  by  the  Indian 
government  than  perhaps  any  other  Muscovite  states- 
man has  ever  been.  Eventually  she  exceeded  her  pow- 
ers, and  in  consequence  was  recalled  and  unofficially 
disavowed.  Afterwards  she  made  a  trip  to  America,  but 
her  great  abilities  were  broken  by  age,  and  she  attract- 
ed but  little  attention  while  there.  The  aim  of  Madame 
Blavatsky's  intrigues  in  British  India  would  have  be- 
come apparent  to  intelligent  and  observing  people  had 
they  taken  into  consideration  that  Russia  is  within 
forty  miles  of  Herat,  the  "  Key  of  India,"  and  that  the 
inhabitants  of  that  city  are  eager  to  see  Russia  assume 
the  government  thereof.  Persons  who  consider  them- 
selves well  informed  and  exceedingly  sagacious  fall  fre- 
quently into  the  error  of  believing  that  the  Bear  desires 
to  get  India  into  its  claws ;  but  this  is  by  no  means  the 
case,  for  the  Czar  has  neither  money  nor  troops  enough 
to  maintain  himself  there  against  England,  and  Rus- 
sia's object  is  merely  to  approach  as  near  as  possi- 
ble to  the  Indian  frontier,  so  that  effective  pressure 
may  be  put  upon  Great  Britain  in  case  of  any 
serious  conflict  of  international  interests  arising  in 
Europe.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  sooner  or  later  there 
will  be  another  mutiny  in  India,  and  then  doubtless 
the  native  Princes  and  Rajahs,  having  been  previously 
prompted,  will  appeal  to  Russia  for  assistance.  In 
all  likelihood  the  Czar  will  instantly  comply  with  their 
request,  not  with  a  view  to  annexing  the  land,  but  in 
order  to  restore  native  rule,  and  thus  by  weakening 
England  to  obtain  a  free  hand  as  regards  Constanti- 
nople. Of  course  England,  once  deprived  of  her  Indian 
empire,  would  be  shorn  of  the  greater  portion  of  her 
riches  and  importance,  and  would  promptly  be  reduced 
to  the  state  of  a  third-rate  power.  The  point  at  issue 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

for  Russia  naturally  is  to  obtain  control  of  the  Darda- 
nelles and  a  free  entry  to  the  Mgean  Sea,  and  were  it 
possible  to  hold  the  straits  independently  of  the  Bos- 
porus, the  city  itself  would  become  a  negligible  quan- 
tity ;  but  as  this  is  not  feasible,  and  as  the  Dardanelles 
cannot  be  held  without  possession  of  Constantinople 
and  of  the  forts  that  line  both  sides  of  the  straits,  it  is 
clear  that  Russia  will  strain  every  nerve  in  the  effort 
to  seize  them.  This  is  the  real  reason  of  Russian  hos- 
tility to  English  interests  in  Egypt,  Abyssinia,  and 
elsewhere,  and  this  is  also  why  Madame  Blavatsky's 
almost  hypnotic  influence  over  the  Rajahs  and  native 
Princes  was  so  eminently  desirable.  But  this  is  a 
digression,  which  may,  perchance,  be  forgiven  me, 
for  having,  during  my  numerous  trips  to  the  East, 
devoted  considerable  attention  to  occultism,  I  was 
much  interested  by  the  consummate  skill  and  ability 
with  which  this  singular  woman  put  her  profound 
knowledge  of  the  subject  at  the  service  of  her 
country. 

Another  of  my  guests  that  evening  was  Mr.  H o, 

Russian  Envoy  at  the  Khedivial  Court,  one  of  the  most 
charming  and  delightful  men  whom  it  has  been  my 
fortune  to  meet.  An  illegitimate  son  of  Czar  Nicholas 
—  the  great-grandfather  of  the  present  Emperor  — 

H o  was  not  only  a  celebrated  diplomat,  but  also 

a  thorough  grand  seigneur,  a  poet  of  no  mean  talent,  and 
a  man  possessed  of  such  scintillating  wit  and  humor 
that  he  was  lionized  wherever  he  went.  Before  being 
sent  to  Cairo  he  had  played  an  important  r61e  at  Sofia, 
and  when  Egypt  knew  him  no  more,  he  was  appointed 
Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Bucharest,  where  he  ob- 
tained, thanks  to  his  clever  rhymes,  such  an  influence 
over  Queen  "Carmen  Sylva"  that  with  his  customary 
finesse  he  was  enabled  to  advance  marvellously  the 

21 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Pan-Slavist  cause,  much  to  the  delight  of  Pobiedonot- 
soff  and  of  his  imperial  master. 

Yet  another  remarkable  personage  present  was  that 
extraordinary  individual  S  .  .  .  r  Pasha,    in   reality 

Count   K 1-K y,  a   nobleman    of 

German  Poland,  whose  career  had  been  one  of  the 
most  romantic  that  can  be  imagined.  While  still  a 
very  young  man  he  had  killed  his  colonel  in  a  duel 
for  the  sake  of  a  woman,  and,  having  been  forced  to 
leave  the  army,  entered  the  Turkish  service,  rapidly 
rose  to  distinction,  and  finally,  after  having  embraced 
the  Mohammedan  faith,  became  one  of  the  Sultan's 
most  trusted  generals.  At  the  desire  of  the  Padishah, 
he  went  to  Egypt  as  master  of  the  horse  to  Ismail 
Khedive,  during  that  ruler's  palmiest  days,  and  made 
himself  absolutely  invaluable  to  him.  His  Cairene 
palace  was  worthy  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  and  was 
filled  not  only  with  wonderful  treasures,  but  with 
many  lovely  wives  also.  A  man  of  most  distinguished 
and  courtly  presence,  and  gifted  with  extraordinary 
savoir  faire,  he,  during  every  summer,  used  to  shake 
the  dust  of  Egypt  from  his  feet  and  repair  to  a  mag- 
nificent chateau  near  Gratz,  in  Austria,  which  he  had 
inherited  from  a  relative,  and  there,  shedding  the  Ori- 
ental personality  of  S  .  .  .  r  Pasha,  be  more  than  ever 

Count  K 1-K y.     Indeed,  the  Catholic 

Church  could  boast  of  no  more  ardent  devotee  than  he ; 
and  his  village  priest  dined  regularly  every  Sunday 
with  him,  while  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  made  a  point 
of  staying  at  the  castle  each  year  during  confirmation- 
time.  It  goes  without  saying  that  these  excellent  peo- 
ple were  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  their  host 
was  that  self-same  S  .  .  .  r  Pasha  whose  fame  as  a 
sybaritic  Turk  was  world-wide.  Serenely  did  this  ver- 
satile personage  continue  for  six  months  out  of  every 

22 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

twelve  to  play  his  part  as  a  great  Catholic  magnate, 
appearing  at  church  three  times  every  Sunday,  and 
showing  himself  a  true  Providence  to  the  poor  on  and 
about  his  estates.  Whatever  strict  moralists  may  have 
to  say  about  the  elasticity  of  such  a  conscience,  Count 

K 1-K y,  alias  S  .  .  .  r  Pasha,  was  a 

singularly  attractive  and  pleasant  man,  a  remark- 
able conversationalist,  a  superb  musician,  and  shrewd 
enough,  if  occasion  arose,  to  sell  a  carved-ivory  ankus 
to  an  elephant,  as  the  Hindoo  saying  goes. 

There  were  also  present  one  of  the  Bonaparte  princes, 
a  most  amusing  American,  a  handsome  grandee  of 
Spain,  which  in  itself  is  a  rather  remarkable  fact,  and 
the  celebrated  Corney  Grain.  Surely  a  sufficiently 
quaint  assemblage  to  make  me  eager  not  to  lose  a  mo- 
ment of  their  presence.  I,  therefore,  fairly  flew  to  my 
dressing-room,  and  hustled  into  white  laces  and  pearls 
with  so  much  disregard  for  their  delicacy  of  texture  and 
for  the  feelings  of  my  women  that  I  still  had  a  few  min- 
utes to  spare  when  I  emerged  from  my  apartments,  rap- 
idly drawing  on  my  gloves.  I  pushed  open  the  study 
door,  crying :  "Well,  I  think  I've  done  it  to  some  purpose!" 

Fred  was  \vriting,  and  as  I  spoke,  though  he  did  not 
look  up,  his  pen  ceased  travelling. 

"Done  what?"  he  muttered,  absent-mindedly. 

I  gave  him  a  short  description  of  my  interview  with 
Mahmoud,  and  brought  it  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion 
with  a  frank  and  unvarnished  opinion  of  the  man  him- 
self. 

"Well,  he  is  a  cad,  but  no  worse,  I  think,"  quoth  my 
lord;  "and,  moreover,  if  one  were  to  know  only  perfec- 
tions"—  and  his  pen  began  slowly  to  move  again — 
"indeed,  in  this  wretched  country  perfection  is  con- 
siderably at  a  premium,"  he  continued,  with  a  shrug 
of  his  shoulders. 

23 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Then  why  not  sift  our  acquaintances  more  care- 
fully. Even  if  we  receive  less,  it  will  not  be  a  great 
sacrifice  —  as  far  as  I  am  personally  concerned,  at 
least." 

"  We  should  cause  endless  talk  and  gossip,  and  bring 
a  storm  of  bitterest  execration  about  our  diminished 
heads  were  we  to  do  so,"  he  muttered,  once  more  fully 
absorbed  in  his  writing. 

Provoked  by  his  manner,  I  took  one  step  towards 
him  and  shook  him  soundly,  causing  his  pen  to  drop 
upon  his  manuscript  with  disastrous  results. 

"  You  have  a  very  pretty  wit,"  I  said,  viciously ;  "  but 
it  is  high  time  that  you  should  cease  your  epigrams 
and  take  to  your  dress-coat,  for  I  hear  carriages  on  the 
drive,  and  you  cannot  imagine  how  ridiculously  your 
knee-breeches  and  silk  stockings  go  with  this  odious 
red-and-blue  blazer." 

He  burst  out  laughing,  and  then,  looking  ruefully 
at  the  sputter  of  ink  upon  his  half-written  page,  said, 
with  an  unsuccessful  attempt  at  dignified  reproach: 

"  And  to  think  that  this  sort  of  thing  is  what  one  gets 
for  being  the  devoted  slave  of  an  autocrat!" 

Leaving  him  to  seek  once  more  his  dressing-room 
and  valet,  I  stepped  into  the  patio,  amid  the  tropical 
ferns  and  foliage  of  which  favorite  buen  retire  I  paused. 
Half  hidden  among  masses  of  flowers  gleamed  the 
rose-hued  globes  of  many  glow-worm  lamps,  and  over- 
head, sharply  outlined  against  the  sky,  towered  grace- 
ful palms  and  broad -leaved  bananas.  The  murmur 
of  the  fountain  gurgling  softly  through  clusters  of 
maidenhair  and  aspidia  was  deliciously  refreshing, 
and  I  watched  amusedly  the  gold  and  silver  fish  and 
azure-tinted  Chinese  carp,  darting  swiftly  beneath  the 
glassy  surface  of  the  water  with  the  restlessness  of 
their  kind,  until  I  went  to  meet  my  guests. 

24 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

The  evening  was  a  success,  for  we  were  all  in  the 

highest  of  spirits.  At  dinner  Judge  D r  (a 

most  estimable  and  very  wide-awake  person,  who  held 
a  distinguished  post  on  the  bench  of  the  International 
Tribunals),  and  whom  we  had  irreverently  nicknamed 
"Yankee  Doodle,"  on  account  of  his  deliciously  amus- 
ing Americomania,  aroused  genuine  admiration  by  a 
strikingly  humorous  device.  He  wore,  namely,  on  the 
left  side  of  his  dress-coat  a  gorgeously  bediamonded 
star,  nearly  as  large  as  a  saucer,  and  embellished  with 
fantastic  enamel  scrolls  of  the  most  uncompromisingly 
crude  scarlet  and  blue.  In  the  centre  of  this  astonish- 
ing ornament  was  the  word  "Merit"  executed  in  brill- 
iants and  encircled  by  a  wreath  of  golden  laurel  leaves. 
My  curiosity  being  roused  by  this  novel  decoration, 
I  asked  him  what  sovereign  had  conferred  it  upon 
him. 

"Sovereign?"  quoth  his  Honor,  airily.  "Bah!  No 
need  of  that!  I  conferred  it  upon  myself!  Do  you 
think  that  I  am  minded  to  go  about  amid  diplomatists 
and  officers  all  a-glitter  with  stars  and  crosses,  while 
my  own  breast  is  indecently  naked?  Not  much!  I 
don't  intend  to  put  my  own  country,  or  my  own  merit, 
to  shame  for  the  sake  of  a  few  hundred  dollars!  This 
child's  going  to  be  right  in  the  swim!  No  back  seat 
for  me!"  Then  he  concluded,  innocently,  amid  the 
uncontrollable  laughter  caused  by  this  astonishing  ex- 
planation :  "  I  am  rather  proud  of  the  design,  by-the- 
way.  It  was  my  own  idea,  and  the  man  who  executed 
it  for  me  in  Paris  warmly  congratulated  me  upon  its 
originality!" 

Quite  unabashed  by  the  merriment  which  he  had 
excited,  the  good  judge,  then  and  there,  launched  him- 
self into  one  of  his  customary  eulogiums  of  American 
simplicity  and  democratic  principles,  which,  in  the 

25 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

light  of  the  jewelled  star  decorating  his  broad  bosom, 
was  indeed  not  without  its  spice  of  humor. 

"  America,  dear  lady,  is  the  first  country  in  the  uni- 
verse. Do  not  think  me  prejudiced/'  said  he,  with  ad- 
mirable firmness;  "  but  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States, 
and  incidentally  of  the  universe,  with  a  knowledge  of 
both  places,  I  repeat  that  it  is  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession every  time!" 

Here  I  took  my  stand  in  opposition,  reluctantly, 
but  from  a  sense  of  duty  towards  the  maligned  uni- 
verse. 

"There  is  nothing  like  impartiality/'  I  said;  "don't 
you  think  that  your  statement  is  a  little  too  sweep- 
ing?" 

The  judge  sighed  with  the  air  of  a  man  who  meant 
to  carry  his  point,  whatever  the  consequences  to  him- 
self might  prove  to  be. 

"Not  at  all,  not  at  all!"  he  exclaimed,  gravely. 
"That's  just  where  you  are  mistaken!  I  don't  claim 
nearly  as  much  as  I  or  any  of  my  countrymen  unde- 
niably might  Myself,  I  abhor  partiality;  but  in  all 
broad-mindedness  I  think  I'm  telling  the  truth.  Truth 
is  truth  and  must  out,  you  know — like  murder  1" 

After  which  lucid  enunciation  of  principle  he  sat  up 
very  straight  in  his  chair  and  gazed  intently  at  the 
pale-blue  smoke  of  his  cigarette  floating  in  the  evening 
air. 

A  slightly  derisive  laugh  came  from  H o,  seat- 
ed at  my  elbow.  The  citizen  of  the  United  States,  and 
incidentally  of  the  universe,  frowned  impatiently. 

"You  cannot  deny,  Excellency,"  he  said,  with 
warmth,  "that  our  manners,  mode  of  life,  customs, 
and  inventive  powers  are  away  ahead  of  any  other 
nation's." 

"Your  inventive  powers,  eh?  Oh,  certainly,  there 

26 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

can  be  no  doubt  about  them/'  replied  the  witty  diplo- 
mat, with  delicate  irony,  casting  a  sidelong  glance  at 
the  judge's  self-inflicted  "Order  of  Merit." 

"What  riles  me,"  continued  the  imperturbable  mag- 
nate of  the  courts,  "  is  the  way  in  which  we  are  always 
misunderstood.  Why,  for  instance,  are  we  Americans 
continually  accused  of  snobbery,  when  the  puritanical 
and  childlike  simplicity  of  our  life  is  one  of  its  most 
admirable  qualitiesl  Look  how  easy  of  access  our 
President  is,  while  the  pettiest  of  your  European  prince- 
lets  considers  it  necessary  to  his  dignity  to  surround 
himself  with  a  triple  row  of  guards  and  halberdiers. 
You  may  not  believe  it,  but  a  friend  of  mine  came 
from  the  West  last  year  to  do  Europe,  giving  him- 
self three  months  for  the  job,  and  being  a  hustler, 
he  managed  to  see  everything  worth  seeing  from 
Glasgow  to  Constantinople,  and  from  Cherbourg  to 
Warna.  He  finally  reached  Vienna,  where  he  swal- 
lowed double  mouthfuls  in  order  to  have  sufficient 
leisure  to  take  in  the  Court  and  the  imperial  family 
before  speeding  on.  Well,  of  course  he  was  in  no  mind 
to  wait  until  an  audience  could  be  obtained  for  him 
by  our  minister,  so  he  drove  out  to  Schonbrunn, 
where  the  Emperor  was  villegia-touring,  and  sent  in 
his  card.  Not  only  did  Francis- Joseph  refuse  to  see 
him,  but  the  Court  flunkeys  actually  laughed  at  him — 
laughed  at  a  man  worth  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  at 
the  lowest  estimate,  just  as  if  he  had  been  a  sweep!" 

"But,  my  dear  sir/'  interrupted  H o,  "neither 

can  a  stranger  send  in  his  card  to  your  President  and 
be  received  without  more  ado." 

"What's  the  odds?  Our  President  has  his  official 
reception  days  where  everybody  can  see  him  face  to 
face,  and  shake  hands,  too,  in  a  genial,  honest  way. 
That's  where  our  superiority  comes  in!  Who  wants 

27 


to  speak  with  him?  Nobody!  But  it  is  mightily 
pleasing  to  be  able  to  say  that  one  has  been  received 
and  made  welcome  by  the  Chief  Magistrate." 

How  much  longer  the  loquacious  judge  might  have 
aired  his  curious  democratic  theories  it  is  impossible 
to  guess,  had  not  the  hour  arrived  when  we  had  planned 
to  drive  to  the  railroad  station  at  Boulak  in  order  to 
witness  the  departure  of  Gordon  Pasha  for  his  ill-fated 
and  last  journey  to  Khartoum.  We  saw  him  enter  his 
train,  clad  in  full  evening  dress  of  irreproachable  black- 
ness and  solemnity,  without  even  the  bright  ribbon  of 
an  order  to  enliven  it,  and  carrying  as  sole  hand-lug- 
gage a  bottle  of  liqueur  brandy  under  one  arm  and  a 
gigantic  box  of  cigarettes  under  the  other!  It  was  a 
strange  scene,  and  one  that  I  have  always  remembered, 
for,  in  view  of  subsequent  events,  there  remained  for  me 
a  sort  of  persistent  ghastliness  attached  to  it.  The  bell 
clanged  for  departure,  and  the  Pasha  leaned  out  of  the 
window  to  wave  a  last  farewell  to  Sir  E  .  .  .  .  n-B  .  .  .  .  g, 
the  British  Envoy,  and  to  the  little  knot  of  friends  who 
had  come  to  bid  him  God-speed,  the  dazzling  Egyptian 
moonlight  illuminating  his  mild,  kindly,  but  slightly 
vacant  countenance,  in  which  one  always  faintly  di- 
vined the  rapt  absorption  of  a  zealot.  Twice  he  raised 
his  hand  as  the  train  slowly  steamed  away,  puffing, 
blowing,  and  vomiting  great  white  clouds  from  its 
smoke-stack,  and  this  was  the  last  we  ever  saw  of 
Chinese  Gordon,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  char- 
acters of  the  age. 

A  little  saddened,  we  returned  to  my  house,  leaving 
Fred  to  go  and  advise  the  Viceroy  of  Gordon  Pasha's 
departure,  at  the  palace  of  Abdeen.  The  latter  had, 
until  Gordon's  arrival  at  Cairo,  a  few  days  before,  been 
greatly  wrought  up  by  the  fact  that  the  general,  while 
in  England,  had  publicly  referred  to  him  as  a  liar,  a 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

coward,  and  in  every  way  a  most  contemptible  creature. 
Touched  to  the  quick,  Tewfik  heaped  the  most  lavish 
abuse  (in  private,  of  course)  upon  Gordon,  but  as  soon 
as  the  British  government  had  selected  him,  of  all  peo- 
ple in  the  world,  to  proceed  to  Khartoum  for  the  pur- 
pose of  effecting  its  evacuation  by  all  the  Europeans  of 
the  place — England  being  tired  of  defending  it  against 
the  Mahdists — the  Khedive  had  made  a  complete  volte- 
face,  and  affected  to  approve  in  the  most  unmeasured 
terms  this  strange  selection ;  indeed,  he  became  so  en- 
thusiastic in  the  praise  of  his  erstwhile  bdte  noire  that 
it  was  difficult  to  conceal  one's  astonishment  at  so  sud- 
den a  change  of  front.  Now,  the  most  mortal  enemy 
of  Gordon,  Zebehr  Pasha,  the  great  slave  king  of  Cen- 
tral Africa,  was  then  in  semi  -  captivity  at  Cairo,  and 
thereon  hangs  a  tale. 

I  must  begin  by  saying  that  few  men  played  a  more 
important  part  in  the  history  of  Central  Africa  than 
did  that  spare,  bent,  and  sickly  looking  man,  Zebehr 
Pasha.  As  a  boy  he  had  obtained  a  fair  education  in 
the  missionary  schools  of  Cairo,  and  his  native  ability 
had  soon  made  him  a  power  in  the  land.  His  court 
in  the  Kordofan,  where  he  sat  on  a  throne  of  ivory, 
gold,  and  precious  stones,  with  chained  lions  on  either 
side,  and  surrounded  by  a  weird  and  barbaric  splendor 
wellnigh  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  would 
seem  a  figment  of  Eastern  imagination  were  there  not 
sober  evidence  to  every  detail  of  its  prodigal  magnif- 
icence and  antique  cruelties  from  the  reports  of  African 
explorers  who  were  eye-witnesses  thereof.  Out-Nero- 
ing  Nero,  Zebehr  meted  out  death  and  torture  in  their 
most  horrible  forms  to  those  who  had  incurred  his  dis- 
pleasure, and  so  glaring  became  his  excesses  that  he 
was  finally  punished  by  dethronement  and  enforced 
residence  at  Khartoum.  Cursed  with  a  most  rest- 

29 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

less  and  ambitious  disposition,  he  quickly  tired  of  the 
relatively  civilized  life  of  that  pestilential  city  at  the 
juncture  of  the  two  Niles,  and  suddenly  disappeared. 
A  few  years  later  he  was  heard  of  as  an  omnipotent 
slave  king,  whose  name  was  infinitely  more  dreaded 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Africa  than 
that  of  the  redoubtable  Tippoo-Tib.  His  wild  doings, 
indeed,  became  a  by-word  for  destruction  of  property, 
devastation  of  immense  tracts  of  country  former^ 
covered  by  prosperous  towns  and  villages,  and  en- 
slavement of  such  multitudes  of  innocent  men,  women, 
and  children  that  loud  execrations  arose  against  him 
from  every  corner  of  the  Dark  Continent.  Not  only 
by  reason  of  his  extraordinary  career  is  he  an  object 
of  peculiar,  if  grewsome,  interest,  but  because  one  can- 
not help  thinking  that  he  was  in  a  measure  respon- 
sible for  the  death  of  Gordon  Pasha. 

From  the  very  moment  when  Ismail  Khedive,  at  the 
personal  suggestion  of  King  Edward — then  Prince  of 
Wales — appointed  the  eccentric  Gordon  as  Governor- 
General  of  the  Soudan,  Zebehr  recognized  in  him  an 
arch-enemy.  When  he  became  aware  of  this,  the  gen- 
eral tried  to  persuade  the  slave  king  to  visit  him  at 
Khartoum,  promising  him  safe  -  conduct,  for  he  had 
conceived  the  idea  that  by  means  of  a  personal  inter- 
view he  would  be  able  to  convert  him  from  its  most 
bitter  opponent  into  an  invaluable  ally  of  the  Egyp- 
tian government.  Gordon  enjoyed  among  natives  a 
wide-spread  reputation  for  a  high  sense  of  honor  and 
scrupulous  observance  of  his  engagements ;  indeed,  his 
word  was  considered  throughout  China  and  Africa  as 
being  as  good  as  his  bond.  But,  alas,  the  conference 
between  Zebehr  and  himself  was  a  lamentable  failure, 
and,  despairing  of  succeeding  personally  in  quenching 
or  subduing  the  old  man's  hatred  for  the  Egyptians, 

30 


A   DOFFED  CORONET 

Gordon  arranged  a  meeting  at  Cairo  between  him  and 
the  Khedive,  obtaining  a  solemn  assurance  from  the 
latter  that  all  his  pledges  regarding  the  old  rebel's 
safe-conduct  and  liberty  should  be  strictly  observed. 
Hardly,  however,  had  Zebehr  set  foot  in  Cairo  than,  in 
violation  of  all  guarantees  given  him  by  Gordon  in 
the  Khedive's  name,  the  latter  seized  his  person  and 
put  him  under  restraint,  doing  this  so  craftily,  how- 
ever, that  he  led  Zebehr  to  believe  that  his  hand  had 
been  forced  by  Gordon  and  the  English  government. 
Shortly  afterwards  the  captive  old  lion  learned  that 
his  favorite  son,  the  very  apple  of  his  eye,  had  been 
caught  in  the  act  of  slave-raiding  and  summarily  exe- 
cuted by  Gordon.  His  grief  and  rage  were  appalling, 
and  he  made  no  secret  among  his  associates  at  Cairo 
of  his  determination  never  to  rest  until  he  was  revenged 
upon  the  general  for  this,  and  for  the  quasi-imprison- 
ment  which  he  naturally  attributed  to  him.  It  is  not 
generally  known  that  Zebehr  Pasha  was,  de  facto,  one  of 
the  principal  lieutenants  of  El-Senussi,  the  grand-mas- 
ter of  one  of  the  most  powerful  religious  fraternities 
of  the  Mohammedan  faith,  who  had  his  headquarters 
at  Jerboub,  on  the  Egypto-Tripolitan  frontier,  the  terri- 
ble Mahdi  being  really  nothing  but  a  mere  tool  in  his 
hands  and  those  of  Zebehr. 

This  is  all  so  true  that  when  the  French  communist, 
Olivier  Pain,  left  the  Egyptian  capital  to  join  the  Mahdi 
in  his  struggle  against  the  English  and  Egyptians 
he  obtained  from  Zebehr  a  safe-conduct,  which  enabled 
him  to  pass  unharmed  through  all  the  lines  of  the  der- 
vishes. 

Being  aware  of  all  this,  my  astonishment  may  be 
easily  imagined  when  late  on  this  night  of  Gordon's 
departure  Fred  told  me,  on  his  return  from  the  palace, 
that,  thanks  to  the  impulsiveness  of  Mahmoud  Bey, 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

who  had  conducted  him  to  the  Viceroy's  presence  with- 
out previously  taking  the  latter's  pleasure  on  the  sub- 
ject, he  found  Zebehr  in  earnest  and  most  animated 
conversation  with  the  Khedive. 

"  You  would  have  been  surprised  to  see  the  impassive 
features  of  the  terrible  slave  king  quite  transformed 
by  exultation,"  quoth  Fred  to  me ;  "  he  looked  positively 
heroic,  and  how  you  would  have  laughed,  too,  to  witness 
Tewfik's  discomfiture  when  he  became  aware  of  my 
presence  in  the  room.  He  hastily  muttered  something 
to  Zebehr,  who  slipped  off  through  a  side  door  with  a 
familiarity  plainly  showing  what  an  habitu6  of  the 
palace  he  is;  then  turned  upon  his  favorite  aide-de- 
camp with  a  ferocious  frown.  Friend  Mahmoud's  con- 
fusion was  extreme,  and  I  would  have  given  some- 
thing to  understand  the  rasping  sentences  in  Turkish 
which  the  Khedive  growled  at  him.  Really,  it  is  a  pity 
you  were  not  there,  you  would  have  enjoyed  it  all  so 
much!  Tewfik's  overpowering  amiability  to  myself 
was  also  highly  edifying,  and  when  he  mentioned 
Gordon  he  literally  glowed  with  enthusiasm,  although, 
naturally,  such  fulsome  praise  sounded  singularly  sus- 
picious to  me  coming  from  a  man  who  had  but  a 
moment  before  been  evidently  engaged  in  confidential 
intercourse  with  Zebehr.  It  is  lamentably  true  that 
one  cannot  put  one's  faith  in  princes,"  concluded  my 
lord  and  master,  with  a  desperate  yawn,  as  he  dis- 
appeared into  the  sanctity  of  his  own  dressing-room. 

Zebehr  remained  at  Cairo,  acting  as  the  Mahdi's 
secret  agent,  and  to  such  purpose  that  this  dread  per- 
sonage was  informed  in  ample  time  of  Lord  Wolseley's 
Nile  expedition  for  the  relief  of  Khartoum  and  the 
rescue  of  Gordon,  with  disastrous  results  to  the  Eng- 
lish forces.  This,  however,  proved  to  be  his  political 
swan  song,  for  the  English  government,  somewhat 

32 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

late  in  the  day,  it  is  true,  became  convinced  of  his  con- 
stant communications  with  the  rebels,  and  decided  to 
isolate  him  once  and  for  all  from  his  allies.  One 
night,  therefore,  he  was  seized  while  staying  in  the 
house  of  the  local  chief  of  the  El-Senussi  fraternity  in 
Alexandria,  was  conveyed  on  board  a  British  man-of- 
war,  which  immediately  set  sail  for  Gibraltar,  and  was 
there  confined  until  the  death  of  the  Mahdi  and  the 
practical  termination  of  the  Soudanese  insurrection. 

Somehow,  I  have  always  pitied  Zebehr,  for,  in  my 
humble  opinion,  he  was  abominably  treated.  To  begin 
with,  the  Anglo  -  Egyptian  government  had  no  right 
whatsoever  to  violate  the  pledges  given  to  him  through 
Gordon,  and  it  is  certainly  open  to  question  whether 
England  acted  with  great  equity  in  abducting  him, 
and  in  detaining  him  as  a  prisoner  of  war  for  several 
years  without  any  form  of  trial  or  even  court-martial. 
I  dare  say  that  my  sympathies  will  meet  with  very 
little  approval ;  but,  really,  Zebehr  was  such  a  pictu- 
resque old  sinner,  so  frankly  barbarous  and  naively 
cruel,  that  one  could  not  withstand  a  feeling  of  admira- 
tion for  this  merciless  warrior  whose  rocky  nature 
held  but  one  seam  of  golden  ore — a  passionate  love  of 
the  children  for  whose  aggrandizement  he  had  so  long 
and  bloodily  striven. 


CHAPTER  II 

I'd  like  to  stake  a  claim  or  two  along  the  river  Nile, 

Where  the  niggers  go  prospectin'  after  counsellors  and  kings. 

They  find  'em  boxed  and  pickled  in  a  most  amazin'  style, 
And  clear  a  handsome  profit  on  their  royal  crowns  and  things. 

M.  M. 

WE  were  lotus-eating  in  the  gardens  of  A s 

during  one  of  our  flying  trips  to  Alexandria — those  gar- 
dens so  beautiful,  so  peaceful,  so  inaccessible  to  the  world 
in  general  that  they  well  deserve  their  name  of  "  Little 
Paradise."  Their  owner — a  character  who  might  have 
been  taken  from  the  Arabian  Nights,  for,  beginning 
life  as  a  stevedore,  he  died  wealthy  beyond  the  dreams 
of  avarice  —  was  strangely  jealous  of  this,  his  most 
cherished  possession,  and  it  was  a  great  privilege,  in- 
deed, to  be  allowed  to  wander  at  one's  sweet  will  amid 
his  incomparable  magnolia  groves  and  his  superb  par- 
terres. 

The  night  was  magnificent.  Above  our  heads  the 
velvety  sky  twinkled  with  myriads  of  stars,  and  out- 
side the  verdure-clad  walls  which  encircle  all  this  love- 
liness one  could  plainly  hear  in  the  solemn  silence  the 
weird  chants  of  the  boatmen  on  the  Mahmoudieh 
Canal. 

Fred,  myself,  our  Muscovite  friend  Monsieur  H o, 

dear  old  "Yankee  Doodle/'  an  Austrian  prince  who 
had  been  wintering  in  Egypt  for  the  sake  of  his 
health,  and,  lastly,  a  charming  young  Bostonian,  Roy 

P y,  of  whom  we  were  all  very  fond,  had  come  there 

34 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

after  dinner  with  the  intention  of  taking  a  little  im- 
promptu supper  on  the  edge  of  the  miniature  lake  which 
is  one  of  the  beauties  of  the  place.  Thoroughly  had 
we  enjoyed  this  little  al-fresco  feast,  and  afterwards  by 
the  brilliant  light  of  the  moon  we  strolled  between  banks 
of  exquisite  flowers  and  helped  ourselves  to  the  golden 
fruit,  which,  together  with  a  wealth  of  fragrant  buds 
and  blossoms,  nestled  among  the  glossy  leaves  of  orange 
and  lime  trees  in  glorious  profusion. 

Seated  in  the  attitude  of  Buddha  on  a  square  basal- 
tic rock  in  the  midst  of  trailing  passion  flowers,  which 
he  ruthlessly  crushed,  and  with  the  high  silk  hat  which 
he  invariably  wore  tilted  on  the  back  of  his  head, 
"Yankee  Doodle"  looked  the  embodiment  of  extreme 
content.  In  each  hand  he  held  a  luscious  orange,  and, 
with  distended  cheeks  and  mellifluous  sucking  sounds, 
he  attacked  first  one  and  then  the  other  with  impartial 
regularity.  Prince  Frederick,  much  struck  by  this 
lavish  procedure,  fixed  his  monocle  firmly  in  his  eye 
in  order  to  better  contemplate  so  graceful  a  spectacle, 
and  asked,  in  his  quaint,  halting  English : 

"Ah!  but,  my  friend,  why  is  it  you  try  to  eat  two 
oranges  at  once?  Is  it  not  very  fatiguing?" 

"Not  a  bit,"  replied  the  courageous  one.  "It's 
bully!  I'm  not  turned  loose  every  day  in  a  free  gratis 
orange-grove;  I  believe  in  making  hay  while  the  sun 
shines,  or  rather  the  moon,"  he  concluded,  reflectively, 
cocking  his  eye  in  the  direction  of  Dame  Luna.  Roy 

P y  grinned  all  over  his  comely  face,  while  the 

prince,  puzzled  by  the  Judge's  colloquialisms,  plaintively 
asked  what  he  meant. 

"Oh,  don't  try  to  understand  him;  he's  above  your 
comprehension,  and  quite  unintelligible  to  the  com- 
mon run  of  aristocrats,"  said  I,  laughing.  "A  dear 
old  fellow,  though,  as  kind  as  can  be,  and  the  very 

35 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

joy  of  my  life  in  this  tiresome  country.  Dear  me, 
how  hot  it  is  getting!"  I  added,  glancing  around 
to  ascertain,  if  possible,  whence  came  the  scorching 
breeze  which  had  arisen  without  any  warning,  for 
the  feel  of  it  seemed  to  indicate  the  very  breath  of  the 
lower  regions.  The  atmosphere,  which  had  until  then 
been  perfection,  was  fast  becoming  singularly  thick 
and  murky;  the  trees  rustled  nervously,  and,  to  add 
to  the  strangeness  of  the  situation,  a  dismal  croaking 
of  frogs  made  itself  heard  in  every  direction.  Indeed, 
one  might  almost  have  believed  that  we  were  about  to 
witness  a  second  edition  of  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  for 
in  the  space  of  a  few  short  minutes  the  ground  became 
literally  covered  with  thousands  of  these  little  creatures, 
and  not  a  step  could  we  take  without  treading  upon 
their  slimy,  yielding  bodies.  To  run  upon  this  slippery, 
croaking  life  was  most  revolting,  but  nolens  volens  we 
had  to  do  so,  as  they  did  not  get  out  of  the  way,  and 
as  it  was  clear  that  a  khamsin  of  no  ordinary  violence 
was  commencing. 

It  is  by  no  means  a  joke  to  be  caught  in  the  open  by 
that  fierce  African  hurricane,  laden  with  clouds  of  the 
finest  desert  sand,  which  fills  eyes,  ears,  and  mouth 
with  intolerable  burning,  and  literally  grinds  the  skin 
off  one's  face  and  hands.  We  therefore  hurriedly  gath- 
ered our  portable  belongings  together  and  rushed  at 
full  speed,  despite  those  plaguey  frogs,  towards  the 
spot  where  we  had  left  our  carriages.  Unfortunately, 
we  missed  our  way  in  the  swiftly  gathering  gloom, 
and  brought  up  in  front  of  a  mass  of  rocks,  at  the  base 
of  which  what  seemed  like  the  opening  of  a  narrow 
cave  or  broad  fissure  showed  up  darkly  against  the 
luxuriant  foliage.  Several  times  the  men  of  the  party 
shouted  in  stentorian  tones,  hoping  that  our  kavasses, 
or  at  least  our  coachmen,  might  hear,  but  their  exer- 

36 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

tions  were  of  no  avail,  and  even  the  "  Hallo-e-e-e-e 
Hallo-o-o-o,"  which  was  the  Judge's  habitual  war-cry, 
and  which  he  facetiously  dubbed  "the  yowl  of  the 
deserted  jackal/'  remained  unanswered.  In  spite  of 
the  gravity  of  the  situation  I  could  not  help  laugh- 
ing at  this  lugubrious  sound,  which  invariably  herald- 
ed "Yankee  Doodle's"  approach  wherever  and  upon 
whomsoever  he  called,  thereby  filling  with  the  utmost 
consternation  butlers,  boobs,  and  grooms  of  the  cham- 
ber alike.  All  we  could  now  do  was  to  seek  shelter  in 
the  narrow  cleft  that  opened  before  us,  but  unfortu- 
nately the  face  of  the  rock  rose  abruptly  from  a  kind 
of  small  swamp  or  marshy  pool,  covered  with  lilies 
and  lotus,  which  looked  to  us  at  first  very  much  like 
an  impassable  barrier.  Necessity,  however,  is  a  good 
teacher,  and  we  were  soon  skipping,  like  the  frogs 
themselves,  from  one  to  another  of  some  large  stones 
which,  as  luck  would  have  it,  rose  here  and  there 
above  the  inky  surface  of  the  water,  our  very  speed 
saving  us  from  losing  footing,  and  thus  we  reached 
the  welcome  cave  just  in  time,  for  it  was  becoming  dif- 
ficult to  stand  against  the  force  of  the  wind.  Mean- 
while the  moon  had  become  obscured  by  angry-look- 
ing clouds  flitting  across  its  reddened  disk,  and  it  was 
so  dark  that  we  felt  rather  than  saw  our  way  under  a 
drooping  curtain  of  waving  creepers.  Completely  out 
of  breath,  we  sank  exhausted  on  the  dry  sand  which 
carpeted  the  little  grotto,  but  as  in  Egypt  such  places 
are  generally  the  favorite  resort  of  snakes,  scorpions, 
and  fat-bellied  spiders  of  grewsome  hairiness,  I  felt  by 
no  means  at  my  ease. 

"I  sincerely  hope  that  we  are  not  keeping  house 
with  reptiles  and  insects!"  I  said,  somewhat  hope- 
lessly. 

"I  think  I  can  set  your  fears  at  rest  on  that  score," 

37 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Yes,  yes,  there's  a  passage  opening  on  the  other 

side,"  cried  Roy  P y,  craning  his  neck  to  look  over 

the  Judge's  shoulder. 

"Ah I"  said  the  Austrian,  "I  would  exceedingly  like 
a  little  farther  to  explore.  Do  you  agree,  my  dear 
friends?"  We  did  agree,  and  our  judicial  lamplighter 
marched  across  the  vault  without  further  hesitation. 

"Come  on,"  he  sang  out,  waving  the  lantern  invit- 
ingly to  and  fro.  "  Horror  ubique  animos,  simul  ipse 
silentia  terret  1  This  is  a  rich  old  plantation  we've 
struck,  so  we  may  as  well  see  a  little  more  of  it,  for 
we  might  find,  perhaps,  where  they'd  set  out  a  whole 
row  of  kings. 

Laughing  despite  the  mocking  and  exasperating 
echoes,  we  followed  him  closely.  The  gallery  was  a 
narrow  and  winding  one,  honeycombed  with  sepulchral 
niches,  and  we  pressed  eagerly  forward,  full  of  the  enthu- 
siasm of  discovery,  not  finding  anything  of  particular 
interest,  it  is  true,  unless  one  counts  as  such  the  some- 
what singular  experience  of  walking  over  the  dry  bones 
of  one's  predecessors  by  some  twoscore  centuries  and 
hearing  the  smaller  parts  of  their  bony  anatomy  snap 
under  one's  feet.  But  we  were  lured  on  by  the  possibil- 
ity of  finding  something  at  the  farther  end,  if  it  were 
only  another  outlet,  for,  as  "Yankee  Doodle"  said, 
"anything  was  better  than  sitting  at  the  bottom  of  a 
hole  twiddling  one's  thumbs  and  waiting  for  the  kham- 
sin to  cease." 

As  for  the  farther  end,  there  didn't  seem  to  be  any. 
The  tunnel  wound  away,  in  an  apparently  limitless 
length,  unbroken  by  branch  or  intersecting  passage  of 
any  kind.  So  Fred's  repeated  injunctions  to  be  on  the 
lookout  lest  such  snares  for  the  unwary  should  puzzle 
and  confuse  us  seemed  superfluous,  and  we  felt  quite 
secure  and  at  perfect  leisure  to  listen  to  a  learned  arch- 

40 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

aeological  discussion  which  was  waxing  fast  and  furi- 
ous between  the  Judge  and  Monsieur  H o. 

My  own  interest  was  rather  in  the  speakers  them- 
selves than  in  their  dates  and  arguments  and  authori- 
ties, for  I  delighted  to  bring  those  two  together,  and 
never  tired  of  watching  them.  Each  made  such  a 

complete  foil  to  the  other.  H o,  with  his  marvellous 

and  somewhat  sarcastic  and  caustic  wit,  and  the  Ameri- 
can full  of  the  driest  and  most  entertaining  sort  of  humor, 
while  the  Russian's  polished  courtliness,  and  "Yan- 
kee Doodle's"  easy  colloquial  and  somewhat  slap- 
dash manner,  and  especially  the  total  inability  of  each 
to  comprehend  the  other's  genre,  made  the  combination 
a  most  piquant  and  amusing  one.  On  and  on  we  wan- 
dered, the  time  slipping  away,  thanks  to  much  doubt- 
less unseasonable  mirth,  chatter,  and  repartee,  and 
truly  we  did  not  give  so  much  as  a  thought  to  the  in- 
creasing distance  behind  us.  Alas  for  the  good  things 
said  down  there  in  the  blackness  of  the  pit!  I  fear  we 
had  but  short  memories  for  them  afterwards. 

At  last  the  atmosphere  of  the  place,  both  moral  and 
physical,  began  to  pall  upon  us,  and  we  got  a  little  tired 
of  seeing  the  darkness  withdrawing  before  us,  step  by 
step,  only  to  disclose  two  interminable  parallels  of  long- 
dead  and  mouldering  monotony — dust  and  bones,  bones 
and  dust,  jagged  points  and  rough  angles  of  rock,  tomb 
after  tomb,  and  the  most  eldritch  shadows  which  now 
loomed  large  in  front,  now  slanted  far  behind,  and 
dodged  and  flew  about  in  odd  corners,  like  dusky  in- 
habitants of  this  nether  region.  We  were,  therefore, 
not  sorry  when  our  torch-bearer  called  a  halt  for  rest 
in  a  hall-like  enlargement  of  the  passage  apparently 
formed  by  the  caving  in  of  a  whole  block  of  tombs,  and 
as  we  sat  about  on  convenient  fragments  of  rock  some- 
body's proposal  to  return  met  such  eager  and  unani- 

41 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

mous  acceptance  that  it  became  plain  that  we  had  all 
been  silently  longing  for  the  outer  air. 

Just  as  we  rose  to  go,  to  my  intense  surprise  I 
caught  sight  of  a  faint  roseate  suggestion  of  light 
which  seemed  not  very  far  away.  I  rubbed  my  eyes — 
yes,  it  was  there  still.  I  lagged  a  few  steps  behind 
the  others  so  as  to  dispose  of  the  deceptive  gleam  of 
the  lantern.  There  was  no  doubt  about  it. 

"Look,  look!"  I  cried;  and  as  the  others  hastily  re- 
traced their  steps,  "Is  this  dawn?"  I  said,  stupidly, 
pointing  towards  the  strange  pinkish  glow,  which  cer- 
tainly resembled  that  of  the  rising  sun. 

"  Daylight  in  this  inferno?"  exclaimed  H o.  "  No, 

it  cannot  be.  But  let  us  see  what  fresh  discovery  we 
are  about  to  make!"  And  fired  with  renewed  curios- 
ity we  again  started  forward,  literally  wading  through 
bones  and  bone-dust — such  an  agglomeration  as  I 
hope  never  to  see  again,  even  in  a  nightmare. 

Again  the  passage  became  narrower,  and  soon  we 
were  travelling  through  a  dream-like  effulgence,  ap- 
parently proceeding  from  an  aperture  in  the  rocky 
walls  ahead,  and  which,  as  we  progressed,  grew  brighter 
and  brighter  until  we  realized  that  it  was  not  God's 
daylight  we  saw,  but  the  ruddiness  of  some  artificial 
illumination.  We  walked  in  absolute  silence,  too 
much  amazed  and  interested  to  communicate  our  im- 
pressions to  one  another,  when  presently  this  inex- 
plicable radiance  of  the  under-world  outlined  an  arched 
doorway  against  the  darkness,  and,  passing  a  hinged 
metal  grille,  which  had  been  partly  drawn  aside,  we 
emerged  into  a  place  of  such  antique  beauty,  so  unreal 
in  its  contrast  with  our  own  modernity,  that  we  could 
not  repress  gasps  of  astonishment  and  admiration. 

We  stood  within  a  great  oval  chamber,  of  which  the 
polished  walls  of  flesh-tinted  marbles  met,  many  feet 

42 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

above  our  heads,  in  a  dome  covered  with  wonderful 
interlaced  designs  most  delicately  executed.  A  broad 
band  of  dark-green  marble  formed  the  base  of  the  wall ; 
another  marked  the  spring  of  the  dome;  below  this  an 
exquisitely  sculptured  frieze  ran  around  the  entire 
ellipse,  and  a  few  feet  from  the  floor  a  series  of  carven 
panels  were  set  at  regular  intervals,  the  space  between 
the  frieze  and  the  panelling  being  filled  in  by  relief- 
work  harmonizing  with  that  upon  the  arching  vault 
above.  Lordly  lustra  of  green  bronze,  much  taller  than 
a  man,  were  ranged  in  regular  alternation  against  the 
wall,  and  several  yards'  distance  from  it — each  one  a 
single  carved  and  convoluted  shaft,  bearing,  as  the 
stem  bears  a  flower,  a  brilliant  crimson  or  purple  flame, 
which  burned  clear-pointed  in  the  still  air,  and  diffused 
an  odor  of  rich,  penetrating,  pungent  perfumes.  From 
the  intersections  of  the  traceries  overhead  hung  by  long 
chains  many  lamps  of  yellow  metal.  These  were  of 
wonderfully  beautiful  shapes,  and  evidently  very  an- 
cient, but  the  haste  of  that  moment,  of  course,  precludes 
my  now  referring  them  to  any  period  or  style  of  art. 
Nor  can  I  recollect  the  subjects  represented  in  the  sculpt- 
ures, for  the  central  object  of  all  this  magnificence 
claimed  our  attention,  to  the  exclusion  of  everything 
else. 

Upon  a  pedestal  of  some  highly  polished  dark-green 
stone,  the  greatest  wonder  of  all,  a  huge  sarcophagus 
of  transparent  crystal — seemingly  a  solid  block,  and 
faceted  like  a  diamond  —  stood  poised  above  its  dim 
reflection  in  the  marble  floor.  Four  of  the  great  lustra 
stood  sentinel  over  it,  two  at  either  side,  and  through 
its  lucid  walls  could  be  seen  the  figure  of  a  young  man 
of  some  thirty  years,  recumbent  upon  the  folds  of  a  long 
purple  cloak.  Upon  the  head  was  a  golden  helmet, 
which  framed  the  sculptural  beauty  of  the  features, 

43 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

mous  acceptance  that  it  became  plain  that  we  had  all 
been  silently  longing  for  the  outer  air. 

Just  as  we  rose  to  go,  to  ray  intense  surprise  I 
caught  sight  of  a  faint  roseate  suggestion  of  light 
which  seemed  not  very  far  away.  I  rubbed  my  eyes — 
yes,  it  was  there  still.  I  lagged  a  few  steps  behind 
the  others  so  as  to  dispose  of  the  deceptive  gleam  of 
the  lantern.  There  was  no  doubt  about  it. 

"Look,  look!"  I  cried;  and  as  the  others  hastily  re- 
traced their  steps,  "Is  this  dawn?"  I  said,  stupidly, 
pointing  towards  the  strange  pinkish  glow,  which  cer- 
tainly resembled  that  of  the  rising  sun. 

"  Daylight  in  this  inferno  ?"  exclaimed  H o.  "  No, 

it  cannot  be.  But  let  us  see  what  fresh  discovery  we 
are  about  to  make!"  And  fired  with  renewed  curios- 
ity we  again  started  forward,  literally  wading  through 
bones  and  bone-dust — such  an  agglomeration  as  I 
hope  never  to  see  again,  even  in  a  nightmare. 

Again  the  passage  became  narrower,  and  soon  we 
were  travelling  through  a  dream-like  effulgence,  ap- 
parently proceeding  from  an  aperture  in  the  rocky 
walls  ahead,  and  which,  as  we  progressed,  grew  brighter 
and  brighter  until  we  realized  that  it  was  not  God's 
daylight  we  saw,  but  the  ruddiness  of  some  artificial 
illumination.  We  walked  in  absolute  silence,  too 
much  amazed  and  interested  to  communicate  our  im- 
pressions to  one  another,  when  presently  this  inex- 
plicable radiance  of  the  under-world  outlined  an  arched 
doorway  against  the  darkness,  and,  passing  a  hinged 
metal  grille,  which  had  been  partly  drawn  aside,  we 
emerged  into  a  place  of  such  antique  beauty,  so  unreal 
in  its  contrast  with  our  own  modernity,  that  we  could 
not  repress  gasps  of  astonishment  and  admiration. 

We  stood  within  a  great  oval  chamber,  of  which  the 
polished  walls  of  flesh-tinted  marbles  met,  many  feet 

42 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

above  our  heads,  in  a  dome  covered  with  wonderful 
interlaced  designs  most  delicately  executed.  A  broad 
band  of  dark-green  marble  formed  the  base  of  the  wall ; 
another  marked  the  spring  of  the  dome ;  below  this  an 
exquisitely  sculptured  frieze  ran  around  the  entire 
ellipse,  and  a  few  feet  from  the  floor  a  series  of  carven 
panels  were  set  at  regular  intervals,  the  space  between 
the  frieze  and  the  panelling  being  filled  in  by  relief- 
work  harmonizing  with  that  upon  the  arching  vault 
above.  Lordly  lustra  of  green  bronze,  much  taller  than 
a  man,  were  ranged  in  regular  alternation  against  the 
wall,  and  several  yards'  distance  from  it — each  one  a 
single  carved  and  convoluted  shaft,  bearing,  as  the 
stem  bears  a  flower,  a  brilliant  crimson  or  purple  flame, 
which  burned  clear-pointed  in  the  still  air,  and  diffused 
an  odor  of  rich,  penetrating,  pungent  perfumes.  From 
the  intersections  of  the  traceries  overhead  hung  by  long 
chains  many  lamps  of  yellow  metal.  These  were  of 
wonderfully  beautiful  shapes,  and  evidently  very  an- 
cient, but  the  haste  of  that  moment,  of  course,  precludes 
my  now  referring  them  to  any  period  or  style  of  art. 
Nor  can  I  recollect  the  subjects  represented  in  the  sculpt- 
ures, for  the  central  object  of  all  this  magnificence 
claimed  our  attention,  to  the  exclusion  of  everything 
else. 

Upon  a  pedestal  of  some  highly  polished  dark-green 
stone,  the  greatest  wonder  of  all,  a  huge  sarcophagus 
of  transparent  crystal — seemingly  a  solid  block,  and 
faceted  like  a  diamond  —  stood  poised  above  its  dim 
reflection  in  the  marble  floor.  Four  of  the  great  lustra 
stood  sentinel  over  it,  two  at  either  side,  and  through 
its  lucid  walls  could  be  seen  the  figure  of  a  young  man 
of  some  thirty  years,  recumbent  upon  the  folds  of  a  long 
purple  cloak.  Upon  the  head  was  a  golden  helmet, 
which  framed  the  sculptural  beauty  of  the  features, 

43 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  the  straight  nose,  firm  mouth,  and  rounded  chin, 
of  the  purest  classic  mould,  the  delicately  pencilled 
eyebrows  and  long,  sweeping  lashes,  gave  a  wonderful 
impression  of  life.  The  hands  were  folded  over  the 
tunic  and  corselet  of  wrought  gold  upon  the  hilt  of 
a  short,  straight  sword,  great  jewels  sparkled  on 
the  massive  golden  chains  that  fell  over  breast  and 
shoulder,  and  upon  the  clasps  which  fastened  the  san- 
dals to  the  finely  modelled  feet,  while  just  above  the 
quiet  heart  lay  a  small  alabaster  plaque,  inscribed  in 
faint  and  faded  blue  with  what  looked  like  ancient 
Greek  characters.  As  we  gazed  in  awe  at  the  sleeper, 
who  had  so  far  withstood  the  destiny  of  Caesar  as  to 
maintain  the  person  and  pomp  of  royalty  during  the 
march  of  unnumbered  generations,  the  silence  was 
broken  by  the  voice  of  "Yankee  Doodle"  crying  ex- 
citedly : 

"  Say,  do  you  know  what  we've  struck?  This  thing 
is  the  tomb  of  Alexander  the  Great.  We've  made  the 
biggest  archaeological  discovery  of  the  century!" 

And,  wild  with  enthusiasm,  as  well  as  entirely  re- 
gardless of  the  sanctity  of  the  place,  he  threw  his  silk 
hat  high  into  the  air,  and  gave  vent  to  a  loud  and  re- 
sounding hurrah,  which  drowned  the  earnest  expostu- 
lations of  M.  H o,  and  had  scarcely  died  away 

when  a  hurried  clatter  of  footsteps  was  heard  coming 
towards  us,  apparently  from  overhead,  followed  by  a 
clanging  of  metal  doors,  and  fierce  exclamations  and 
yells  of  surprise  and  fury. 

"Now  you've  done  it!"  said  Roy  P y.  "Here 

comes  the  whole  garde  du  '  corpse,'  priests  of  some  kind 
or  other,  bent  on  murdering  us  out  of  hand,  I  suppose!" 

I  laughed  outright.  Where  we  stood,  past  experi- 
ence was  left  behind,  and  everything  seemed  so  unreal 
and  dreamlike  that  the  idea  of  danger  never  even 

44 


"  HE  THREW  HIS  SILK  HAT  HIGH  INTO  THE  AIR,  AND  GAVE 
VENT  TO  A  LOUD  AND  RESOUNDING  HURRAH  " 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

occurred  to  me.  At  that  moment  I  felt  a  firm  clasp 
upon  my  arm  and  heard  Fred's  voice  in  my  ear,  low 
and  earnest. 

"Run!"  he  said,  briefly. 

One  look  at  his  set  face  recalled  me  to  myself  and 
the  serious  nature  of  the  circumstances,  and  I  ran! 

As  we  dashed  under  the  arch  of  the  doorway  I  glanced 
back,  and  over  the  shoulder  of  the  hatless  Judge,  who 
was  hastily  extinguishing  the  lantern  as  he  ran,  caught 
a  glimpse  of  a  troop  of  fierce-looking  men  dressed  in 
long  robes  and  brandishing  murderous  knives,  who 
were  pouring  out  of  a  door  on  the  other  side  of  the 
sepulchral  chamber. 

Then  the  blackness  swallowed  us  up. 

The  native  priest,  whether  Copt  or  Moslem,  is  an 
ugly  customer  to  tackle  when  he  conceives  his  sacred 
shrines  to  have  been  polluted  by  unbelievers,  so  we 
made  the  best  time  we  could,  plunging  and  stumbling 
forward  through  darkness  truly  that  of  Egypt,  with 
hands  outstretched  before  our  faces,  and  feet  raised 
high  to  clear  the  obstacles  of  the  road,  dreading  at 
every  step  to  fall  into  some  yawning  vault,  and  listen- 
ing the  while  to  the  steps  of  our  pursuers  close  behind. 

"Lucky  for  us,"  I  heard  Fred's  voice  say  near  me 
in  the  thick  night  enveloping  us.  "  They  were  in  such 
a  hurry  to  kick  us  out  that  they  forgot  to  bring  any 
light  along!" 

So  indeed  it  was.  Our  friends,  the  enemy,  were 
laboring  under  the  same  disadvantages  as  ourselves, 
and,  what  was  more,  either  we  were  gifted  with  the 
proverbial  wings  of  fear,  or  something  occurred  to  de- 
lay them,  for  though  at  the  outset  of  the  race  our  start 
was  only  the  width  of  the  great  chamber,  we  seemed 
to  gain  on  them,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  sounds  of 
the  pursuit  were  perceptibly  farther  away. 

45 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Presently,  as  I  hurried  painfully  along,  I  thought 
I  detected  a  mass  of  blacker  blackness  in  front  of  me, 
and  putting  out  my  hand,  it  encountered  the  back  of 
one  of  my  fellow  -  unfortunates.  There  was  nothing 
strange  about  this,  as  we  were  all  keeping  as  close 
together  as  possible,  but  the  form  I  touched  correspond- 
ed to  the  outline  of  the  aforesaid  black  patch.  I  could 
see! 

I  hailed  the  discovery  with  a  joyful  exclamation. 
It  might  be  only  a  passing  adumbration  of  light,  it 
might  be  wellnigh  too  faint  to  be  of  use  to  us,  still  it 
was  light  after  a  fashion,  and  our  depressed  spirits 
came  up  with  a  bound.  And  it  did  not  pass.  Heav- 
en knows  how  it  reached  those  caverns,  but  it  grew 
and  grew  as  we  fled  on  over  bones  and  rocks  and  pit- 
falls, until  we  were  surrounded  by  a  grayness  through 
which  our  accustomed  eyes  were  able  to  lead  us  with 
much  less  danger  to  life  and  limb.  Redoubling  our 
exertions,  we  increased  our  lead  perceptibly,  and  then 
our  new  hopes  were  suddenly  dashed  to  pieces  by  a 
most  unforeseen  obstacle. 

The  path  forked!  We  had  not  noticed  this  on  the 
way  in,  and,  halting,  we  stared  at  one  another  through 
the  heavy  Stygian  twilight  in  consternation.  Only 
for  an  instant,  however,  did  we  allow  doubt  to  have  the 
upper  hand,  for  truly  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost,  so, 
hastily  making  a  random  choice,  we  hurried  on  some 
distance  farther,  and  stopped  in  utter  exhaustion  to 
breathe.  Nearer  and  nearer  came  the  footfalls  of  our 
pursuers,  and  then,  to  our  inexpressible  delight,  we 
distinctly  heard  them  rumble  away  up  the  other  pas- 
sage. Still  this  was  only  a  respite,  for  it  was  to  be 
supposed  that  they  would  soon  discover  their  mistake 
and  return  to  follow  up  the  proper  trail;  and,  since  it 
was  plain  that  to  continue  our  headlong  flight  might 

46 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

land  us  hopelessly  in  a  cul-de-sac,  we  dived  into  a  deep 
recess  in  the  wall  which  descended  below  the  level  of 
the  floor,  and  covered  ourselves  completely  with  a  has- 
tily collected  heap  of  bones.  Hardly  had  we  run  to 
earth  in  this  ghastly  fashion  before  we  heard  the  voices 
once  more  approaching,  and  a  few  moments  later  the 
dark  figures  of  the  priests  rushed  past,  the  noise  of  their 
running  feet  soon  dying  away  in  the  depths  beyond. 

Our  ruse  had  succeeded!  It  naturally  did  not  occur 
to  them  to  search  the  niches  of  the  walls  and  floor,  for 
there  are  so  many  thousands  of  such  pigeon-holes  in 
these  vast  catacombs  that  the  task  would  have  been 
indeed  like  looking  for  a  needle  in  a  haystack.  There 
we  lay  half  smothered  by  the  nauseating  tomb  dust, 
afraid  to  move  an  inch,  and  terrified  lest  the  unbearable 
tickling  in  our  throats  and  noses  should  induce  coughs 
or  sneezes.  An  indeterminable  time  elapsed  —  or  at 
least  it  seemed  so,  though  afterwards  we  discovered 
that  it  could  not  have  been  more  than  a  quarter  of  an 
hour — and  then  we  heard  the  guardians  of  the  sepul- 
chre coming  back,  their  voices  loud  and  angry  with 
disgust  at  the  failure  of  their  search.  Through  the 
bony  screen  I  could  dimly  discern  them,  and  I  perceived 
that  their  leader  carried  in  his  hand  what  seemed  to  be 
the  silk  hat  that  "Yankee  Doodle"  had  hurled  into 
the  air  when  we  stood  before  the  crystal  sarcophagus. 
Nearly  an  hour  passed  by  before  we  ventured  to 
emerge  from  our  wretchedly  cramped  quarters,  and 
then,  shaking  ourselves  free  as  silently  as  we  could 
from  the  heap  of  scapulae,  tibia?,  and  femora,  under 
which  we  had  crouched,  we  resumed  our  retreat,  in 
sorry  doubt  as  to  whether  we  had  taken  the  right  road, 
and  scarcely  relishing  the  prospect  of  perishing  of 
hunger  and  thirst  in  the  catacombs  of  Alexandria. 

Although  the  halt  had  renewed  our  by  this  time 

47 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

wellnigh  exhausted  strength,  we  felt  that  it  would  be 
prudent  to  proceed  at  a  much  slower  rate  than  before, 
so  as  not  only  to  avoid  accidents  by  falling  over  some 
obstacle  or  other,  but  so  as  to  be  better  able  to  look  for 
possible  landmarks  which  might  guide  us  on  our  way. 
But  there  seemed  to  be  none  of  them.  There  was  a 
horrible  sameness  throughout  these  caverns,  and  es- 
pecially by  that  faint  earth-light,  as  I  may  call  it,  "it 
all  looked/'  as  the  Judge  said, "  like  any  other  old  hole. " 

For  an  endless  time  we  plodded  wearily  on,  dripping 
with  perspiration,  plastered  with  grime,  and  faint  with 
thirst,  before  we  deemed  it  safe  to  relight  our  little  lan- 
tern. Never  was  there  anything  so  beautiful  to  us  as 
that  clear  brightness!  We  could  have  almost  shouted 
for  joy,  and,  despite  all  prudence,  I  am  afraid  we  did  do 
something  of  the  kind  when  its  first  rays  showed  us, 
glittering  on  the  ground,  a  diamond  clasp  that  had 
fastened  my  sash,  and  which  I  must  have  dropped  on 
the  way  in.  The  effect  of  this  guarantee  of  the  road 
was  amazing.  All  hands  straightened  up,  there  was 
a  general  squaring  of  shoulders  and  inhaling  of  deep 
breaths,  and  a  few  moments  later  even  some  faint  and 
feeble  jokes  made  their  appearance  in  the  reawaken- 
ing conversation,  which  excited  disproportionately  en- 
thusiastic yet  guarded  merriment.  By  the  time  of 
our  next  halt  for  rest  we  were,  barring  weariness,  al- 
most ourselves  again,  and  the  talk  within  the  golden 
circle  of  radiance  cast  around  us  by  that  blessed  little 
lantern  was  almost  lively. 

Suddenly  Prince  Frederick  asked:  "Does  the  lamp 
as  brilliantly  as  previously  burn?  How  long  can  it 
yet  endure?" 

"I  don't  know,"  growled  the  Judge.  "I've  never 
tested  it — suffering  Moses!  it  is  going  down!  Come 
on,  people,  while  it  lasts!" 

48 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

We  sprang  to  our  feet  and  travelled  a  hundred  yards 
or  so  with  galvanic  energy,  the  cold  horror  of  the  dark 
creeping  over  our  hearts  the  while,  then  the  pungent 
smell  of  the  expiring  wick  spread  through  the  air,  and 
in  a  moment  more  our  little  luminary  went  out  with  a 
faint  sputter. 

For  once  the  cheery  Judge  lost  his  temper,  and  the 
things  he  said  amused  the  sardonic  echoes  wonder- 
fully. 

"  If  you  ever  catch  me  fooling  around  again  among 
the  cold  '  Hie  Jacets'  of  the  dead/'  he  exclaimed,  "you 
may  know  that  I've  gone  into  the  'hic-ing'  business 
myself,  and  you  can  put  the  'hie 'in  parentheses!" 

We  laughed  over  this  long  afterwards,  but  then  no- 
body felt  sufficiently  humorous  to  do  so,  though  Fred 
responded  with  assumed  cheerfulness. 

"Oh,  well,  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  sit  and  wait  until 
our  eyes  get  used  to  it  again." 

We  sat  and  sat,  but  our  eyes  didn't  "  get  used  to  it." 
Apparently  we  had  passed  beyond  the  region  of  the 
inexplicable  earth-light,  for  no  kindly  ray  came  to  our 
assistance,  and  blank,  impenetrable  blackness  ruled 
over  all.  This  was,  indeed,  somewhat  of  a  damper, 
coming  so  soon  after  the  warm  glow  of  hope. 

"It's  a  question  of  match-boxes,"  I  cried, vainly  at- 
tempting to  speak  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of  no  great 
consequence.  "  Roy,  confiscate  them  all,  and  walk  in 
front  until  you've  emptied  them." 

There  was  a  fumbling  in  invisible  pockets,  and  Roy 
P y  was  heard  blunderingly  collecting  contribu- 
tions, which  luckily  were  liberal;  then,  snap!  went  a 
wax  vesta,  and  the  tiny  light  leaped  up  in  the  face  of 
the  giant  dark.  We  followed  along  behind  the  dim 
nicker,  thoroughly  played  out,  tripping  and  stumbling 
from  sheer  weariness  as  often  as  from  any  other  cause, 
4  49 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

and  feeling,  like  a  man  who  is  having  a  big  run  at 
roulette,  that  fortune  was  on  our  side,  but  oppressed, 
nevertheless,  with  a  sickly  dread  that  she  might  at 
any  minute  turn  against  us.  Yes,  our  stake  was  a 
big  one  and  we  well  might  be  anxious ! 

Thus  for  another  seeming  eternity  the  toilsome  way 
was  measured  out  by  the  precious  little  waxen  sticks, 
until  just  as  Roy  called  out,  "Only  three  left,"  the 
Judge,  who  was  immediately  behind  me,  jumped  into 
the  air  with  a  terrific  war-whoop. 

"Good  Heavens!"  said  I,  irritably.  "Let  me  know 
before  you  do  that  again.  You  nearly  carried  me  off 
my  feet." 

"  Why,"  he  cried,  " don't  you  see!  Here's  the  cham- 
ber we  entered  first;  there's  the  foot  of  the  staircase! 
Hurrah,  we're  out!" 

We  were,  indeed!  All  fatigue  forgotten,  in  a  final 
spasm  of  energy,  we  fairly  tore  up  the  winding  stairs, 
matches  or  no  matches,  and  saw  the  blessed  light  of 
day  filtering  through  the  fringe  of  verdure  that  over- 
hung the  entrance  of  the  grotto. 

The  sun  had  risen  and  was  shining  brightly  with 
all  the  radiance  of  an  Eastern  morning  as,  with  clothes 
torn  to  shreds  and  faces  that  looked  drawn  and  pale 
through  their  thick  coating  of  grime,  we  crawled  through 
the  dew-laden  gardens  to  the  entrance-gates,  where, 
to  our  extreme  delight,  we  found  our  carriages  waiting 
for  us,  the  men  in  charge  being  nearly  beside  them- 
selves with  fright,  and  on  the  point  of  returning  to 
Alexandria  to  advise  the  police  of  our  extraordinary 
disappearance. 

My  personal  sdis,  who  was  devoted  to  me,  actually 
fell  at  my  feet  and  cried  with  delight  at  seeing  me  again, 
poor  fellow.  And  then  we  had  the  hoods  of  the  vic- 
torias raised  so  that  our  pitiable  condition  could  be  hid- 

50 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

den  from  view,  and  drove  rapidly  back  to  Alexan- 
dria. 

Judge  D r  and  the  Muscovite  Excellency  (who 

were  both  enthusiastic  Egyptologists),  in  spite  of  all 
we  had  gone  through,  immediately  launched  into  a 
passionate  discussion  as  to  the  identity  of  the  person- 
age who  kept  his  lonely  vigil  in  the  gorgeous  chamber  I 
have  attempted  to  describe  from  the  brief  glimpse  I  had 
of  it.  The  Judge  argued  in  favor  of  his  already  loudly 
proclaimed  theory.  All  ancient  writers,  he  said,  are 
agreed  that  Alexander's  corpse  was  brought  in  a  splen- 
did golden  coffin  from  Babylon  to  Alexandria,  and 
there  buried  under  the  artificial  hill  of  Soma,  on  the 
summit  of  which  now  stands  the  so-called  Mosque  of 
Daniel,  erected  by  Mehemet  Ali,  the  first  independent 
ruler  of  Egypt. 

Beneath  this  mosque,  however,  according  to  Mo- 
hammedan tradition,  repose  the  remains  of  the  prophet 
who  foretold  his  doom  to  the  Babylonian  king  and 

the  coming  of  the  Macedonian  Empire.  M.  H o 

argued  that  the  secret  of  such  perfect  embalming  as 
that  of  which  we  had  just  seen  so  magnificent  an  ex- 
ample had  long  been  lost  at  the  period  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  and  that  the  body  must,  therefore,  be  that  of 
some  notable  of  earlier  date — perhaps,  considering  the 
Mussulman  tradition  just  mentioned,  some  personage 
of  Daniel's  time. 

Be  all  this  as  it  may,  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  the 
Roman  emperor  Caligula,  when  hampered  by  lack  of 
funds,  confiscated  the  golden  sarcophagus  of  the  world 
conqueror  and  enclosed  the  body  in  a  coffin  of  glass. 
As  long  as  the  Mohammedan  religion  endures  it  will 
probably,  however,  be  impossible  to  elucidate  the  mys- 
tery, for  the  secret  of  the  tomb  was  evidently  carefully 
guarded  for  religious  reasons,  and,  supposing  it  to 

51 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

underlie  the  Mosque  of  Daniel,  England  has  too  much 
at  stake  in  the  conciliation  of  the  eighty  millions  of 
Moslems  subject  to  her  rule  to  venture  upon  arousing 
their  anger  by  profaning  what  they  rightly  or  wrongly 
regard  as  one  of  the  holy  places  of  their  faith. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  we  could  not  take  any 
further  steps  towards  unravelling  the  secret  of  our 
night's  adventure,  for  we  would  have  been  exposing 
ourselves  to  the  vengeance  of  the  Mullahs,  or,  perchance, 
Coptic  priests,  who  had  witnessed  our  invasion  of  their 
shrine.  Indeed,  we  left  Alexandria  the  next  day,  sin- 
cerely hoping  that  the  momentary  glimpse  which  they 
had  of  us  would  not  suffice  for  subsequent  identifica- 
tion. 

Of  the  discretion  of  our  servants  on  the  subject  of 
our  long  absence  in  the  "little  Paradise/'  which  to  us 
had  been  nothing  short  of  a  "little  Hell,"  we  were  cer- 
tain, for,  thanks  to  our  well-known  espousal  of  the 
antislavery  cause  in  Egypt,  we  enjoyed  there  a  rever- 
ential admiration  among  the  natives  that,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  we  have  never  attracted  in  any  other  clime. 

Much  has  been  said  and  tons  of  ink  have  been  used 
in  the  prosecution  of  that  forlorn  hope — the  abolition 
of  African  slavery — but  the  traffic  goes  merrily  on  in 
Egypt  to-day  as  it  does  in  the  rest  of  the  Dark  Conti- 
nent. It  is  hardly  necessary  for  the  dealers  to  be  par- 
ticularly circumspect  about  it.  Under  Khedive  Ismail, 
to  his  credit  be  it  said,  the  department  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  slave-trade  was  a  large  and  well-paid  one. 
In  1885,  however,  it  consisted  of  one  foreign  officer  and 
two  native  sub-inspectors,  who  were  supposed  to  ferret 
out  all  the  infractions  of  the  law.  The  persons  they  in- 
dicted were  tried  before  a  court-martial  of  native  officers 
(supposed  to  be  assisted  by  one  Englishman,  whose 
duties  generally  kept  him  elsewhere),  who  were  all  slave- 

52 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

holders  themselves,  and  thus  little  inclined  to  do  jus- 
tice in  the  matter.  The  wretched  sub-inspectors  were 
poorly  supplied  with  funds,  and  popular  sympathy 
was  all  with  the  malefactors,  so  that  it  was  almost  im- 
possible for  the  prosecution  to  secure  evidence,  while 
the  most  bare-faced  perjury  was  always  to  the  fore  in 
support  of  the  defence.  As  a  result,  a  conviction  even 
of  a  man  caught  red-handed  was  wellnigh  impossible. 
My  husband  and  myself,  in  the  freshness  of  youthful 
enthusiasm,  collected  a  number  of  documentary  proofs 
of  the  above  state  of  affairs,  which  are  still  in  my  pos- 
session. Among  the  many  cases  that  I  might  cite,  the 
following  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque,  that  of  a  very 
handsome  Circassian  slave-girl,  who  made  a  deposi- 
tion before  the  authorities  as  follows: 

"  I  am  a  Circassian.  My  name  is  Ganem.  I  belong 
to  Princess  Adilah  Hanem,  sister  of  the  late  Sultan 
Abdul  Aziz,  and  residing  at  Constantinople.  Being 
somewhat  out  of  health,  my  mistress  sent  me  to  the 
house  of  her  chief  physician  for  special  care  and 
treatment.  After  remaining  there  for  eight  months 
I  asked  the  latter  to  send  me  back  to  my  mistress, 
but  he  refused.  I  discovered  that  he  had  informed 
her  that  I  was  dead.  He  then  sold  me  for  the  sum 
of  $350  to  his  relative,  Hussein  Aga-el-Gonyali,  a 
well-known  dealer,  who  brought  me  to  Cairo.  After 
detaining  me  three  days  in  his  house  in  the  Saidah 
Zenab  quarter,  which  time  I  spent  in  tears,  imploring 
to  be  sent  back  to  my  beloved  mistress,  he  informed 
me  that  he  had  sold  me  to  Khalil-Pasha-Yaghen, 
native  commissioner  of  the  Daira-Sanieh  at  Shoubrah. 
He  put  me  in  a  closed  carriage  and  directed  the  coach- 
man to  the  latter 's  house,  but  I  succeeded  in  wrench- 
ing the  door  open  and  in  jumping  out  just  as  the 
carriage  was  passing  the  Abdeen  police  station,  and, 

53 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

falling  at  the  feet  of  the  sentinel  on  duty,  implored  his 
assistance." 

The  driver,  who  was  arrested,  fully  confirmed  the 
latter  part  of  the  girl's  statement.  The  dealer  disap- 
peared completely,  while  the  poor  woman,  who  per- 
sisted in  her  entreaties  to  be  sent  back  to  her  mistress, 
was,  in  the  first  place,  intrusted  to  the  tender  care  of 
the  sub-Governor  of  Cairo,  a  merry  young  spark,  who 
had  made  himself  notorious  some  years  previously  as 
the  ring-leader  of  the  mob  of  officers  who  attacked  a 
high  English  official  and  Nubar  Pasha  at  the  Ministry 
of  Finance,  beat  the  latter,  and  pulled  out  tufts  of  the 
former's  beard.  After  passing  on  the  girl  to  several  of 
his  boon  companions  in  turn,  the  sub-Governor  finally 
gave  her  in  marriage  to  a  lieutenant  of  the  Egyptian 
army,  who  certainly  must  have  been  gratified  at  the 
gift! 

It  would  take  too  much  space,  and  also  require  too 
much  patience  on  the  part  of  my  readers,  to  cite  here 
a  tenth  part  of  the  documentary  proof  that  Fred  and  I 
collected  at  the  time,  not  to  mention  that  which  was 
communicated  to  me  at  a  much  later  date,  showing 
that  the  situation  remains  practically  unchanged  to 
the  present  day.  I  think,  however,  that  the  above 
facts  speak  for  themselves,  and  that  much  further  com- 
ment is  superfluous.  There  may  be  many  different 
opinions  as  to  the  advisability  of  abolishing  slavery 
in  Mohammedan  countries,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
when  solemn  international  conventions  and  treaties 
exist,  they  ought  at  least  to  be  respected  by  those  in 
authority. 

That  it  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  purchase 
a  slave  of  either  sex  anywhere  in  the  East  I  discovered 
personally  in  the  following  way.  I  pretended  that  I 
desired  to  buy  a  little  Circassian  boy  to  do  duty  as  page, 

54 


and,  mentioning  my  wishes  in  the  matter  to  a  high 
official  of  the  Khedive's  entourage,  received  from  him 
both  verbal  and  written  communications  on  the  sub- 
ject. A  few  days  later  I  went  to  the  bazaar  to  buy 
some  sapphires  from  an  old  Turk  who  kept  a  most 
covetable  hoard  of  precious  stones  in  his  dusky  booth, 
and  while  debating  prices  with  that  aged  iniquity  I 
was  surprised  by  his  suddenly  peering  slyly  into  my 
face  and  offering  in  guarded  words  to  obtain  such  a 
Circassian  chattel  as  he  had  heard  (so  he  said)  I  was 
desirous  of  purchasing.  Of  course  I  pretended  not  to 
understand  him,  and,  having  now  attained  my  object, 
I  wrote  to  my  friend  at  court  that  I  had  changed  my 
mind  and  quite  given  up  the  idea  of  buying  a  slave. 

But  to  return  to  my  own  little  story.  The  end  of  the 
Cairene  season  was  approaching.  Already  great  heat- 
waves were  blown  in  from  over  the  desert's  neighbor- 
ing wastes  of  burning  sand,  and  many  visitors  were 
preparing  to  leave.  I  had  not  seen  Mahmoud  Bey  since 
the  day  of  the  jewel  incident,  and  there  seemed  to  be  a 
slight  improvement  in  the  stormy  atmosphere  sur- 
rounding the  Khedive  and  his  destiny — the  lull  before 
the  storm,  as  the  future  was  to  prove. 

Diners  d'adieux,  splendid  luncheon  parties,  dances, 
and  concerts  were  the  order  of  the  day,  and  when  we 
regained  Cairo  we  found  everybody  wild  with  delight 
at  the  prospect  of  a  great  fete  which  Tewfik  was  about 
to  give  at  his  palace  of  Ismailia,  probably  with  a  view 
to  casting  dust  in  the  eyes  of  those  who  sincerely  be- 
lieved in  his  inevitable  ruin  and  overthrow. 

News  to  the  effect  that  Gordon  Pasha  was  suc- 
cessfully accomplishing  his  difficult  task  at  Khartoum 
had  been  greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  English  and 
Egyptians  alike,  and  certainly  everything — for  the  mo- 
ment, at  least — seemed  couleur  de  rose.  Nobody  dreamed 

55 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

then  that  after  sending  the  European  women  and  chil- 
dren intrusted  to  his  care  down  the  Nile  in  safety,  poor 
Gordon,  when  preparing  to  start  himself,  with  the  nuns, 
priests,  and  a  few  white  traders  and  officials  who  had 
stayed  behind  to  assist  him,  would  find  the  way  blocked 
and  the  city  besieged  by  the  insurgent  forces.  Soon, 
however,  his  repeated  messages,  brought  at  the  risk  of 
their  lives  by  native  carriers  —  messages  full  of  ago- 
nized appeal  for  relief,  not  so  much  for  himself  as  for 
those  with  him — threw  the  entire  civilized  world  into  a 
ferment  of  excitement  such  as  has  seldom  been  wit- 
nessed. That  most  remarkable  of  all  Oriental  states- 
men, both  past  and  present,  Nubar  Pasha,  predicted 
the  catastrophe  which  was  to  follow,  but  none  heeded 
him,  and  I  remember  well  how,  on  that  brilliant  gala 
night  at  Ismailia  to  which  I  just  alluded,  he  looked 
gloomily  at  the  revellers,  and,  shaking  his  handsome 
head,  said  ominously: 

"Dance,  you  fools;  laugh  and  make  merry,  and 
take  no  care  for  the  morrow.  Fools!  Fools  1  Fools'/' 

Neither  have  I  forgotten  the  uncanny  effect  pro- 
duced upon  me  by  his  words,  nor  the  little  shudder 
which  ran  between  my  shoulders,  as  if  a  cold  snake 
had  been  suddenly  thrust  upon  my  flesh. 

Fools!    Fools!    Fools,  indeed! 


CHAPTER  HI 

When  you're  holdin'  of  the  mirror  up  to  nature 
'Tis  a  curious  thing  that  often  conies  to  pass. 

That  some  spalpeen  is  disgruntled  wid  his  fatures, 
And  discovers  that  he's  nothin'  but  an  ass.        M.  M. 

TWO  days  after  our  return  from  Alexandria  and  our 
terrible  night's  adventure  in  the  catacombs,  I  was  hav- 
ing the  finishing  touches  put  to  my  toilet — a  novel  and 
somewhat  startling  combination  of  rose-pink  and  lemon- 
yellow,  with  here  and  there  faint  tints  of  tender  ame- 
thyst and  faint  azure,  which  had  been  inspired  to  me 
by  an  Egyptian  winter  sunset,  and  had  made  me  utter 
an  emphatic  "0  Lor'!"  as  I  realized  that  Felix  had 
created  a  veritable  chef  d'oeuvre  upon  the  lines  I  had 
dictatorially  laid  down  to  him.  Fred,  entering  by  a 
side  door,  exclaimed,  with  a  little  gasp: 

"Well,  Pussy,  I  am  bound  to  say  that  even  now, 
after  two  years  of  married  life,  you  still  sometimes 
knock  me  over!" 

This  delicate  and  highly  gratifying  conjugal  com- 
pliment reassured  me  as  to  the  fitness  of  my  rainbow 
venture,  and  waving  away  the  diamonds  and  pink 
pearls  which  my  head  woman  was  offering  me  to  com- 
plete my  personal  adornment,  I  fastened  in  my  hair 
and  clasped  round  my  neck  some  amethysts  and  tur- 
quoises set  quaintly  in  brilliants  and  black  enamel. 

"Thank  you!  I  really  think,  Fred,  that  this  me- 
lange of  diaphanously  ethereal  and  many-hued  gauzes 
will  strike  everybody  with  awe  to-night,  and  Heaven 

57 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

only  knows  it  takes  something  to  do  that  at  our  dear 
Countess's/'  I  remarked,  slipping  my  bracelets  over 
my  gloves. 

He  laughed,  and,  throwing  a  cloak  lined  with  pink 
marabout  feathers  over  my  shoulders,  followed  me  to 
the  veranda,  before  which  the  carriage  was  waiting  to 
take  us  to  a  dinner  given  by  Countess  S  ...  a,  in  honor 
of  Count  T i,  the  celebrated  Russian  statesman. 

Hers  was  one  of  the  pleasantest  houses  in  Cairo. 
Ma  Chaumiere,  as  she,  with  proud  humility,  called  that 
luxurious  villa,  was  planted  in  the  midst  of  a  min- 
iature and  admirably  cared -for  wilderness  of  tropical 
trees  and  shrubs.  Nor  was  the  chaumi&re  idea  whol- 
ly lost  sight  of  by  its  owner,  for  the  large  drawing- 
room  and  adjoining  salons  were,  one  and  all,  hung  and 
upholstered  in  flowery  French  chintz,  which,  as  she 
frequently  remarked,  was  of  course  the  very  acme  of 
rusticity.  The  rugs  covering  the  floors,  nevertheless, 
had  been  imported  direct  from  Persia  for  the  Countess, 
and  were  of  a  quality,  mellowness,  and  rareness  which 
made  connoisseurs  break  the  tenth  commandment 
the  minute  they  caught  sight  of  their  delicate  softness 
and  peachlike  bloom.  Also  there  were  ordinary  basket 
chairs,  of  unconventional  and  homely  shape,  cushioned 
with  gorgeous  gold  and  silver  tissues-,  and  lounges  of 
bamboo  draped  with  rare  brocades,  while  the  samovar 
of  gold-inlaid  Tula  silver  and  champleve  enamels  stood 
on  a  so-called  peasant  table  that  could  not  have  cost 
much  less  than  five  hundred  guineas,  being  carved 
and  designed  by  a  celebrated  and  masterly  hand.  The 
rest  of  the  establishment  was  carried  out  on  similar 
lines  of  priceless  unostentatiousness,  suggesting  a 
parterre  of  haughty  garden  flowers  coyly  hiding  their 
aristocratic  beauty  under  protecting  and  sober  leaves, 
in  emulation  of  the  most  modest  of  violets. 

58 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

All  who  were  weightiest  in  Cairene  society  came  to 
Ma  Chaumiere,  a  large  number  of  them  to  dine, 
dance,  lunch,  or  sup,  and  the  rest — the  dessus  du  pa- 
nier  —  to  gossip  around  the  bright  wood -fires  which 
from  November  to  March,  whenever  the  condition  of  the 
weather  permitted,  burned  merrily  in  studiously  coun- 
trified, brick -lined  hearths  where  bronze  sphinxes  of 
exquisite  workmanship  did  duty  as  andirons. 

The  diplomacy,  the  army,  both  English  and  Egyp- 
tian, the  Haute  Finance,  and  the  numberless  distin- 
guished foreigners  wintering  in  Cairo,  nocked  thither, 
like  a  thirsty  caravan  around  a  desert  well,  for  the 
Countess  was  consumedly  chic  and  supremely  witty; 
and,  moreover,  the  razor-like  sharpness  of  her  tongue 
was  proverbial,  and  terrified  everybody  into  abject 
subjection  to  her  slightest  whims.  On  her  gala  nights 
there  was  invariably  a  coruscation  of  stars  and  orders 
in  her  reception-rooms,  a  little  first-class  music — just 
enough  to  make  conversation  possible — floating  out 
of  the  open  windows,  riotous  laughter  and  decorous 
apartes  equally  intermingled,  and  scores  of  enviable 
mortals  consuming  delicious  refreshments  served  with 
unimpeachable  art  upon  exquisitely  painted  egg-shell 
china  and  in  mousseline  crystal  embossed  with  a  prince- 
ly coronet  surmounting  a  humble  corn-flower  (the  lady's 
favorite  blossom).  Most  irreverently,  the  Countess 
was  wont  to  say  that  her  chaumi§re  on  a  field-night 
reminded  her  of  a  crate  full  of  ducks  and  fowls, 
cackling  shrilly  in  order  to  recompense  themselves  for 
the  cruel  lack  of  elbow-room.  But  nevertheless  she 
cast  an  occasional  proud  glance  on  the  interminable 
double  line  of  carriage-lamps  all  up  and  down  the  street 
leading  to  her  portals,  for  at  one  moment  she  had  seri- 
ously feared  that,  to  use  one  of  Cecil  Rhodes's  favorite 
expressions,  her  whole  social  apple-cart  had  been  upset. 

59 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

At  the  time  of  which  I  am  writing,  Countess  S  .  .  .  a, 
a  Russian  princess  by  birth,  was  a  power  in  Cairo,  where 
she  had  arrived  some  years  before  as  the  wife  of  a 

wealthy  Muscovite  nobleman — one  Count  B f, 

to  call  him  by  name.  The  husband  was  old  (but  not 
the  wife).  Monsieur  was  cantankerous,  thinking  of 
nothing  but  his  comforts,  his  periodical  attacks  of  gout, 
and  his  own  almighty  personality,  and  finding  pleas- 
ure only  in  hunting  fur  and  feather  wherever  he  found 
himself ;  while  madame,  on  the  contrary,  possessed  an 
almost  fatiguing  gayety,  and  an  admirable  capacity 
for  enjoyment.  She  was  decidedly  pleasing  to  look 
at,  in  spite  of  a  slightly  Kalmuck  cast  of  countenance, 
for  her  figure  was  perfect,  and  likewise  her  style. 
Moreover,  she  had  dash,  vim,  and  brio  it  revendre,  and 
therefore  her  union  to  the  "  old  penguin "  —  as  she 
facetiously  called  her  good  husband  —  was  an  ill-as- 
sorted one.  Shortly  after  her  arrival  in  Egypt  there 
appeared  upon  the  scene  a  gay  Lothario — an  Austrian 
ex -cavalry  officer  brought  up  at  the  celebrated  mili- 
tary school  of  the  Theresianum,  but  who  had  left  the 
army  for  reasons  which,  as  they  reflect  no  credit  upon 
him,  it  is  more  charitable  and  also  more  advisable  to 
leave  unrecorded.  In  course  of  time  he  had  drifted  to 
Mexico  in  the  train  of  that  evil -starred  Archduke, 
that  preux  chevalier  who,  when  about  to  go  and  as- 
sume the  reins  of  imperial  power,  was  so  ill-advised 
as  to  surround  himself  with  a  host  of  adventurers 
and  blacklegs  —  thanks  to  his  chief  of  staff,  Count 
B s,  who  naturally  preferred  to  select  subordi- 
nates and  associates  of  his  own  kidney  rather  than  to 
be  put  to  shame  by  companions  resembling  his  noble- 
hearted  and  high-minded  imperial  master.  After  the 
defeat  and  death  of  Maximilian  at  Queretaro,  the  light- 
hearted  soldier  of  fortune  made  his  way  to  Cairo,  and, 

60 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

being  an  excellent  horseman,  was  appointed  equerry  by 
Khedive  Ismail,  after  having  led,  for  a  comparatively 
long  time,  a  decidedly  precarious,  devil-may-care  exist- 
ence in  the  city  of  the  Mamelukes.  The  susceptible 
heart  of  Countess  S  .  .  .  a  could  not  resist  the  all-con- 
quering influence  of  his  silky  mustaches,  audacious 
black  eyes,  and  glittering  uniform,  and  so  the  chronique 
scandaleuse  became  speedily  enriched  with  one  more 
petit  bonheur  de  contrebande,  whispered  about  amid  the 
jrou-frou  of  silken  skirts  and  the  cadence  of  perfumed 
fans.  However,  petits  bonheurs  de  contrebande  are  not 
always  quite  satisfactory,  and  nobody  can  deny  that  a 
bona  fide  marriage  with  a  wealthy  and  attractive  widow 
is  far  more  moral  and  praiseworthy  than  clandestine 
kisses,  be  they  ever  so  sweet.  As  it  was  bound  to  hap- 
pen, the  "old  Penguin"  and  the  "gay  Lothario"  be- 
came the  most  intimate  and  inseparable  of  friends,  with 
unforeseen  and  disastrous  results  to  the  former. 

The  two  presented  a  touching  spectacle  when  play- 
ing ecarte  together,  the  older  man  resignedly  accept- 
ing the  fact  that  by  some  unjust  chance  the  younger 
should  always  win  (thus  belying  the  proverb  about 
luck  and  love),  or  walking  arm-in-arm  under  the 
poetical  shadows  of  Shoubrah,  or  yet  again,  with  un- 
tiring enthusiasm,  going  a-hunting  on  the  reed-grown 
banks  of  the  Nile.  Alas  and  alack  for  those  hunt- 
ing excursions !  One  fine  evening  monsieur  the  Count 

B f,  le  pauvre  vieux  penguin,  was  brought 

home  with  broken  wings  and  a  masterly  shot  in  the 
left  side,  followed  by  the  inconsolable  equerry,  who 
carried  both  guns,  one  of  which  (the  costliest)  had  not 
been  discharged.  At  the  subsequent  coroner's  inquest 
a  fair-minded  and  unbiased  jury,  composed  of  the  Count- 
ess's tradesmen,  declared  that  hunting  accidents  will 
happen,  and  that  whether  a  man's  gun  has  been  dis- 

61 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

charged  or  not,  he  is  perfectly  within  his  rights  if  he 
kills  himself  therewith  when  breaking  through  a  tan- 
gle of  reeds,  that,  like  as  not,  interfere  with  the  trig- 
ger !  The  grief-stricken  widow  retired  for  a  time  to  the 
seclusion  of  her  Russian  estates,  and  at  the  expiration 
of  her  legal  period  of  mourning  once  more  returned  to 
romantic  Cairo,  this  time  as  the  happy  and  triumphant 
wife  of  Count  S  .  .  .  a,  alias  the  gay  Lothario. 

In  stature  the  Count  was  but  barely  above  middle 
height,  broad  shouldered  and  slim  waisted,  and  of  a 
strong  and  almost  felinely  graceful  build.  He  looked 
eminently  well  bred,  but  a  certain  uncanny  sharpness 
about  his  face  and  flashing  eyes  suggested  a  more  than 
needfully  unscrupulous  Mephisto.  His  whole  aspect 
warned  one  at  first  glance  that  he  would  be  undesirable 
as  an  enemy,  but  even  more  to  be  feared  as  a  friend, 
and  although  his  reputation  as  a  braggadocio  was  a 
well-established  one,  yet  he  was  by  no  means  a  coward, 
and  in  the  green  years  of  his  youth  had  been  known  as 
a  reckless  duellist. 

This  interesting  couple  never  had  any  children — 
a  dispensation  of  Providence  for  which  they  were  touch- 
ingly  grateful.  They  kept  open  house,  and  Khedive 
Ismail's  equerry  having  now  blossomed  into  Khedive 
Tewfik's  chamberlain  and  aide-de-camp,  the  insignif- 
icant cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  which  had 
momentarily  dulled  their  skies,  swiftly  evaporated 
under  the  double  magic  of  money  and  royal  favor. 

When  Fred  and  I  arrived  at  Ma  Chaumi&re  we 
found  many  distinguished  people  assembled  there,  all 
of  them  belonging  to  the  sterner  sex,  and  clustered 
around  their  hostess,  who,  clad  in  fawn-hued  cre"pe-de- 
chine,  embroidered  all  over  with  large  crimson  and  sil- 
ver poppies,  was  looking  her  best.  There  were  present, 
among  others,  His  Excellency  Nubar  Pasha ;  the  guest 

62 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

of  the  evening  Count  T i,  Count  de  M o, 

Italian  Envoy  at  Cairo;  Lord  F t,  and 

the  unfortunate  colonel  of  the  Argyle  and  Sutherland 
Highlanders,  who,  six  weeks  later,  had  his  throat  cut 
from  ear  to  ear  while  asleep  under  his  tent  in  the  camp 
before  Suakim,  his  Dervish  assassin  creeping  through 
triple  lines  of  sentries  to  accomplish  his  awful  purpose, 
and,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  completely  escaping 

detection.     Of  course   H o  was  also  there,  and 

when  I  congratulated  him  upon  his  unusually  healthy 
and  happy  appearance  he  greeted  me  with  this  loudly 
declaimed  impromptu,  much  to  the  amusement  of  every- 
body: 

"Elles  £taient  bien  fan6es,  les  fleurs  de  mon  printemps, 
Car  j'ai  v6cu  beaucoup,  car  j'ai  v6cu  longtemps, 

Et  les  fleurs  ga  passe  si  vite  I 
Mais  je  les  sens  revivre  et  refleurir  soudain, 
Les  roses  et  les  pensees — ces  fleurs  d'un  temps  lointain, 
A  1'amitie  d'une  Marguerite !  " 

There  was  a  perfect  feu  roulant  of  banter  and  clever 
repartee  during  the  whole  evening,  as  was  generally 
the  case  within  the  hospitable  walls  of  Ma  Chaumiere. 
Merciless  wit,  a  perfect  chef,  and  a  good  cellar  are  three 
factors  of  social  success  which  rarely  fail  in  their  effect, 
as  Madame  S  .  .  .  a  well  knew.  Her  table  appointments, 
always  admirable,  and  every  bit  as  chic  and  original 
as  herself,  were  particularly  charming  on  that  night. 
The  cloth  was  bordered  and  decorated  with  orange- 
blossoms,  interspersed  with  tufts  of  the  tiny  berries 
which  make  the  Egyptian  pepper-tree  look  like  a  fan- 
tastic growth  of  scarlet  coral,  and  in  lieu  of  the  hack- 
neyed centre-piece  there  was  a  tiny  fountain  spouting 
perfumed  water  upon  delicate  snowy  orchids,  clustered 
in  a  great  bowl  of  antique  Venetian  glass,  deep  ruby 

63 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

in  tint,  and  profusely  filigreed  and  jewelled,  after  the 
fashion  of  the  period  when  the  Doges  ruled  the  Adriatic. 

The  conversation  soon  drifted  from  the  usual  com- 
monplaces which  generally  mark  the  first  course  of  a 
meal  to  local  gossip  of  a  more  or  less  acrid  but  cer- 
tainly very  amusing  kind.  Much  merriment  had  been 
caused  the  night  before  by  an  untoward  incident  which 
had  happened  to  the  French  Plenipotentiary,  the  cele- 
brated C e-B e,  thanks  to  those  shadows 

of  his  past  which  still  at  times  flapped  his  august 
head  with  their  dusky  wings.  Everybody  knows  that 

B e,  a  worthy  grandson  of  the  world  -  famed 

Bonnet-Rouge  of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  and  a  son  of  that 
hairy  patriot  who  died  yelling  "La  Marseillaise"  on  a 
barricade  in  1848,  had  himself  during  the  Commune, 
as  a  colonel  of  Anarcos,  offered  his  broad  breast  to  the 
bullets  of  the  regulars.  His  photograph  in  the  full 
uniform  of  a  communard,  en  groupe  with  Eudes  and 
Felix  Piat,  is,  for  the  matter  of  that,  to  the  present  day 
kept  on  record  at  Paris.  Captured  and  condemned  to 

death,  B e  managed  to  escape  to  England,  where 

he  kept  his  marvellously  rescued  body  and  his  prob- 
lematical soul  together  by  acting  as  school  -  master, 
and  finally  by  extremely  brilliant  journalistic  efforts. 
At  the  time  of  the  Constantinople  conference  he  went 
there  as  correspondent  for  the  Manchester  Guardian, 
and  made  the  acquaintance  of  Waddington,  who,  pa- 
thetically unconscious  of  this  prepossessing  youth's 
identity,  greatly  attracted  to  him,  and,  moreover,  being 
desirous  of  engaging  a  secretary  well  versed  in  the 
English  language,  selected  him  to  fill  that  post. 

Shortly  before  this  happy  turn  in  his  circumstances, 

B e  had  fallen  violently  in  love  with  the  daughter 

of  a  rich  Armenian  banker  of  Constantinople,  who,  in- 
dignant at  such  presumption  on  the  part  of  a  penniless 

64 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

journalist,  kicked  him  most  unceremoniously  out  of  the 
house.  Deeply  hurt  in  flesh  and  feelings,  the  luckless 
reporter  rose  to  the  occasion  in  both  senses  of  the  word, 
and,  facing  his  wrathful  enemy,  declared  in  well-chosen 
and  impressive  language  that  the  day  would  come — 
sooner,  perhaps,  than  he  thought — when  he  would 
rue  his  unpardonable  brutality  and  be  glad  enough 
to  reconsider  his  verdict,  and  in  the  light  of  subsequent, 
events  one  must  take  it  for  granted  that  the  spirit  of 

prophecy  had  for  the  nonce  entered  into  B e- 

Waddington  took  his  newly  appointed  secretary  to  Paris, 
presented  him  to  Gambetta  (for  whose  paper,  the  Re- 
publique  Frangaise,  he  did  some  remarkable  work), 
and  treated  him  with  such  paternal  kindness  that  the 
ex-communard,  blushes  of  shame  and  regret  mantling 
his  cheek,  made  a  clean  breast  of  his  past  errors  to  his 
distinguished  patrons,  and  succeeded  in  interesting 
them  so  much  in  his  cause  that  they  quietly  secured 
his  pardon.  It  is  also  possible  that  Waddington,  who 
possessed  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  was  amused  at,  and 
very  likely  relished,  the  idea  that  he,  a  high,  mighty, 
and  intensely  dignified  French  Plenipotentiary,  should 
actually  have  brought  back  in  his  train  from  foreign 
lands  a  dangerous  political  criminal  to  the  very  beard 
of  those  self-same  authorities  who  had  condemned  him 
to  an  ignominious  death. 

B e's  next  upward  step  on  the  ladder  of  fortune 

was  his  appointment  as  French  representative  at  the 
International  Danube  Commission  which  assembled  at 
Galatz.  He  did  so  well  while  there  that  he  was  pro- 
moted, first  to  the  rank  of  Secretary  of  Embassy,  then 
made  Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  and  finally 
selected  as  French  Envoy  to  the  Court  of  the  Khe- 
dive. The  time  had  now  come  when  this  ex-polit- 
ical criminal  indulged  in  a  revenge  which  came  peri- 

5  65 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

lously  near  being  a  good  and  worthy  deed.  Before 
assuming  his  post  in  Egypt  he  journeyed  to  Constan- 
tinople, where  he  found  that  his  old  enemy,  the 
Armenian  banker,  had  lost  every  cent  he  possessed.  He 
once  more  applied  for  the  hand  of  the  wretched  man's 
beautiful  daughter,  was  received — it  goes  without  say- 
ing— with  open  arms,  and  capped  the  climax  by  car- 
rying the  whole  family  to  Egypt,  including  the  broken- 
down  old  father,  to  live  in  ease  and  luxury  in  the 
lovely  house  of  Gaston  de  St.  Maurice,  the  prettiest  and 
costliest  one  in  the  whole  city,  and  which  had  been 
leased  for  the  use  of  the  French  Legation. 

But  to  return  to  our  muttons,  for  I  fear  that  I  am 
altogether  too  discursive  when  launched  in  old  diplo- 
matic memories. 

The  incident  which  caused  so  much  merriment  at 
the  Countess's  dinner  was  as  follows : 

B e  in  the  r61e  of  full-fledged  Plenipotentiary 

was  a  mightily  different  personage  from  the  red-sashed 
anarchist  who  had  screamed  himself  hoarse  at  public 
meetings  and  in  smoke-begrimed  brasseries,  and  was  by 
no  means  delighted  when  an  old  comrade  of  those  would- 
be-forgotten  /  days  turned  up  and  hailed  him  in  the 
name  of  I'Egalite,  la  Fraternite,  ou  la  Mort — which 
last  he  had  so  narrowly  escaped.  This  was,  however, 
precisely  what  happened  to  him  on  the  very  night  of 
the  first  official  ball  which  he  gave  at  Cairo,  a  fe"te,  more- 
over, which  was  signalized  by  another  comical  inci- 
dent, of  which  more  anon. 

Olivier  Pain  —  whom  I  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
chapter  as  having  subsequently  joined  the  Mahdi,  an 
expedition  from  which  he  never  returned,  for  he  is  said 
to  have  been  buried  alive  by  that  amiable  religious 
maniac — arriving  in  Cairo  on  the  wings  of  ambition, 
was  delighted  to  find  that  his  erstwhile  accomplice 

66 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

and  chum  had  preceded  him  on  the  road  leading  to  the 
shrine  of  the  goddess  Fame.  He  lost  no  time  in  calling 
upon  the  diplomat,  and  the  interview  was,  according 
to  a  reliable  eye-witness,  a  highly  piquant  one,  His 
Excellency  being  in  no  way  disposed  to  play  Roland 
to  this  disreputable  Oliver,  and  taking  greatly  amiss 
such  appellations  as  ma  vieille  branche  and  mon  vieux 
Copain,  lavishly  conferred  upon  him  in  the  pardonable 
enthusiasm  and  joy  of  reunion  by  the  effusive  citoyen. 
Nolens-volens,  however,  and  for  very  shame's  sake,  he 
could  not  refuse  him  an  invitation  to  that  evening's 
festivity,  and  haughtily  bearing  the  satiny  card  upon 
which  his  name  had  been  hastily,  inscribed,  Pain  re- 
turned to  his  lodgings  a  wiser  but  by  no  means  a  sad- 
der man.  A  few  hours  later  he  presented  himself 
democratically  on  foot  at  the  Maison  St.  Maurice, 
where  the  silver-chained  and  silk-stockinged  huissiers 
de  service  were  inexpressibly  shocked  by  his  loud-checked 
sack-suit,  and  especially  by  the  aggressively  scarlet  tie 
which  he  sported.  Under  no  consideration  would  they 
allow  him  to  pass  the  portals  of  the  Legation,  even  re- 
fusing, in  their  cold-blooded  barbarity,  -to  carry  his 
personal  card — which,  I  regret  to  say,  was  pencilled  on 

the  margin  of  a  newspaper — to  the  great  B e. 

So  enraged  was  Olivier  that,  at  a  loss  how  to  wreak 
his  fury  upon  the  French  government  in  general  and 
its  minions  in  particular,  he  stalked  an  aged  and 
solemn  pet  pelican  —  which,  delighted  by  the  fairy- 
like  illumination  of  the  gardens,  had  forsaken  his 
habitual  shadowy  resting-place  to  admire  them  at 
closer  range — and  lassoing  him  with  his  flaming  cravat, 
with  one  deft  turn  of  the  silk  strangled  this  hapless 
prote'ge'  of  France. 

At     sunrise,    when     the    much-bediamonded    and 
bestarred   company  left  the  salons  of  Monsieur  and 

67 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Madame  B e,  the  limp  and  lifeless  body  of  the 

great  pelican,  lying  on  the  rim  of  a  marble  fountain, 
met  their  horrified  gaze,  its  lack-lustre  eyes  turned 
piteously  to  the  blushing  sky.  The  knotted  ends  of 
a  scarlet  cravat,  barbarously  twisted  around  its  long, 
silvery  throat,  fluttered  in  the  breeze,  and  attached  to 
one  of  them  was  the  extemporized  visiting-card  of  the 
murderer,  bearing  under  the  letters  of  his  name  these 
simple  words:  "Mart  aux  tyrans!" 

Can  one,  after  this,  deny  that  the  Mahdi's  drastic 
treatment  of  the  citoyen  Pain  was  not  a  fitting  retribu- 
tion for  his  blood-thirstiness? 

We  laughed  heartily  at  the  remembrance  of  this  haul 

fait,  but,  as  H o  plaintively  remarked,  "  There 

is  never  any  knowing  what  horrible  crimes  these  an- 
archists will  commit  when  their  pride  is  hurt." 

"  Poor  B e!"  lamented  Countess  S .  .  .  a.  "  How 

stricken  he  must  feel,  especially  after  the  fiasco  of  his 
electric  plant!  All  this  is  indeed  but  a  poor  inaugura- 
tion for  the  fetes  he  intends  to  give;  good  people,  beware 
how  you  accept  his  next  invitations !  These  sensational 
doings  are  exceedingly  disquieting!"  she  concluded, 
solemnly. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  was  that  on  the  preceding 
evening,  and  long  before  the  murder  of  the  pelican,  the 
French  Envoy's  fair  guests  had  found,  on  arriving  at 
the  Legation,  that  the  pleasant  surprise  prepared  for 
them  by  their  host,  and  which  took  the  form  of  an  elec- 
tric illumination — a  great  novelty  in  those  days — by 
means  of  countless  arc-lights  encased  in  milk-white 
globes,  was  to  prove  as  the  blades  of  many  daggers 
buried  in  their  chaste  breasts.  Whether  this  innovation 
had  been  poorly  managed  by  native  artificers,  or  whether 
the  electricity  itself  was  at  fault,  is  one  of  those  grew- 
some  and  baffling  secrets  which  will  never  be  revealed; 

68 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

but  when  the  crude  and  spasmodic  throbs  of  that  dam- 
nable illumination  caught  the  ladies  full  in  the  face, 
the  blanc  de  perle,  the  rose  de  Damas,  and  the  light  tint 
of  azure,  which  added  bloom  to  their  innocent  cheeks 
and  a  seductive  languor  to  their  regards,  were  trans- 
formed into  ghastly  shadows  and  hollows  as  the  fin- 
ger of  famine  and  pestilence  had  suddenly  touched  their 
velvety  loveliness.  With  exclamations  of  dismay  the 
pretty  ones  rushed  into  the  garden,  unanimously  de- 
claring that  until  some  radical  step  had  been  taken  to 
check  such  disastrous  revelations  they  would  not  set 
foot  in  the  salons  so  magnificently  prepared  for  their 
reception.  With  frenzied  haste  the  Minister's  military 
and  civil  households,  assisted  by  the  flower  of  the  army 
of  occupation  and  by  a  multitude  of  attached  and  un- 
attached diplomats,  mounted  step-ladders,  and  even 
kitchen  tables  insecurely  piled  upon  one  another,  and 
with  a  quantity  of  rose-colored  muslin — which  the  by 
then  almost  distracted  Madame  B e  had  fortu- 
nately procured  a  few  days  before  for  the  decoration 
of  her  dressing-room — they  ingeniously  manufactured 
an  all-enshrouding  tent,  through  which  the  rays  of 
Mr.  Edison's  finest  invention  softly  filtered,  thus  losing 
— Heaven  be  praised ! — all  their  aggressive  potency. 

"Talking  of  pelicans,"  suddenly  exclaimed  Captain 

F e,  a  young  officer  of  the  Guards  who  had 

dropped  in  after  dinner,  and  who  modestly  spoke  of 
himself  as  the  handsomest  man  in  the  English  army, 
but  who  might  with  justice  have  added,  the  most  as- 
tounding ass  also — "  that's  the  bird  for  me.  Give  me 
a  pelican!" 

None  of  us  having  such  a  commodity  about  our  per- 
sons, we  were  forced  to  content  ourselves  with  asking 
what  he  wanted  with  such  an  inconvenient  pet. 

"  Oh,  I  tell  you ! "  he  said,  oracularly.  "  A  pelican  has 

69 


A   DOFFED  CORONET 

more  fun  in  him  to  the  square  inch  than  any  other  liv- 
ing beast.  A  few  nights  ago  we  put  up  the  best  joke 
on  the  old  dissenting  clergyman  who  is  staying  at 
Shepheard's  Hotel  that  you  ever  heard  of.  Bobby,  of 
the  Black  Watch,  two  brother  officers  of  mine,  and 
myself,  captured  the  vicious  old  pelican  who  struts 
about  the  gardens,  and,  binding  him  hand  and  foot, 
carried  him  into  the  Dominie's  bed-chamber,  while  the 
latter  was  down-stairs  in  the  coffee-room.  In  the  dark, 
and  with  the  stealth  of  conspirators,  we  slid  the  bird 
under  the  mosquito-curtain  and  tucked  him  firmly  in, 
after  having  partly  loosed  his  bonds,  and  then  care- 
fully thrust  the  four  free  edges  of  the  curtain  under 
the  mattress.  Of  course  we  knew  that  the  reverend 
gentleman  would  creep  to  bed  in  the  dark  for  fear 
of  those  brutes  of  mosquitoes,  and  would  never  dis- 
cover his  bed -fellow  until  he  had  ranged  alongside. 
This  is  precisely  what  happened,  for  a  few  minutes 
after  his  reverence's  arrival  up-stairs,  from  the  adjoin- 
ing room  where  we  had  concealed  ourselves  we  heard  a 
most  appalling  racket.  Then  the  door  flew  open,  and 
you  should  have  seen  that  fat  old  parson  galumphing 
down  the  corridor,  with  flapping  night-robe,  hair  on 
end,  and  face  blanched  with  terror,  the  pelican,  of  course, 
in  hot  pursuit,  clapping  his  huge  beak  viciously  in  his 
immediate  rear.  By  Jove!  but  that  hotel  buzzed  out 
like  an  overturned  beehive  to  investigate  the  commo- 
tion, while  we  lay  on  the  floor  doubled  up  with  an 
unholy  joy.  That  old  man  is  the  greatest  fool  that 
ever  lived." 

"Don't  discourage  the  others,"  put  in  the  Countess, 
mercilessly.  "What  chance  do  you  think  he  had 
against  four,  for  I  do  not  include  the  pelican,  who  seems 
to  have  been  the  only  intelligent  one  of  the  lot.  More- 
over, that  old  gentleman  is  wonderful,  and  quite  in- 

70 


A   DOFFED  CORONET 

valuable.  He  takes  a  snubbing  better  than  any  one  else 

I  know.  That  ill-bred  fellow,  M d,  of  the  French 

Legation,  was  prevailed  upon  to  dine  with  him  last  win- 
ter when  he  was  keeping  house  in  that  tumbled-down 
old  place  of  Muriad  Bey's,  and,  according  to  his  time- 
honored  custom,  arrived  late.  '  Do  you  take  my  house 
for  a  restaurant?'  quoth  the  Dominie.  '  Not  a  bit  of  it/ 

replies  M d,  with  a  sneer ;  '  for  then  I  would  not 

need  to  dine  with  the  proprietor.'  Nevertheless  they 
amicably  and  peacefully  sat  down  to  the  unpalatable 
feast  set  before  them,  and  they  are  to  this  day  the  best 
of  friends." 

"While  on  the  subject  of  repartee,"  said  Fred,  "do 
you  know  what  Lady  X  .  .  y  answered  to  Mrs.  L  .  .  .  g 
the  other  day  when  the  former  announced  her  engage- 
ment to  D t?  Mrs.  L  .  .  .  g,  who  has,  as 

you  all  know,  been  on  the  best  terms  with  D t 

for  many  moons,  said,  acidly:  'Oh,  engaged  to  him, 
are  you?  Well,  your  future  is  my  past,  for  the  dear 
fellow  has  been  one  of  my  most  intimate  friends.' 
'Believe  me,  my  dear,'  replied  Lady  X  .  .  y,  'I  enter- 
tained no  hope  of  discovering  a  man  who  had  not,  at 
some  time  or  another,  been  your  most  intimate  friend !' ' 

When  the  laughter  caused  by  this  sally  had  sub- 
sided, Count  S  .  .  .  a  murmured,  lugubriously :  "  As  far 
as  I  am  concerned,  the  thing  I  dread  most  on  earth  is  a 
woman's  tongue." 

"He  should  know  something  about  that,"  said 
H o,  in  my  ear,  with  a  glance  towards  the  Countess. 

"  Yes,  yes!"  continued  the  Count,  "  a  woman's  tongue 
is  more  to  be  feared  than  a  dozen  poniards.  It  makes 
my  flesh  creep  to  think  of  the  execution  it  can  do;  and 
yet,  without  undue  vanity,  I  can  say  that  I  am  not 
entirely  lacking  in  courage." 

"  You  have  proved  it  by  your  distinguished  services 

71 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

on  both  hemispheres/'  said  the  incorrigible  Fred,  with 
so  innocent  and  childlike  a  look  that  even  the  Juno- 
esque  Countess  did  not  wince. 

There  I  felt  myself  called  upon  to  create  a  diversion, 
by  mentioning  that  there  was  some  rumor  about  a 

return  of  the  celebrated  Madame  L e,  ci-devant 

Duchesse  de  P y,  to  the  fair  land  of  Egypt,  and 

there  followed  a  general  outcry,  for  she  was  one  of  the 
most  celebrated  mauvaises  langues  in  Europe. 

"Who  is  she?"  said  the  guileless  Captain. 

"What!  have  you  never  heard  of  her?  How  old  are 

you?"  queried  the  Countess.  "Madame  L e, 

ex-Duchesse  de  P y,  is  a  woman  of  singularly 

wide-spread  fame,  whom  even  babes  and  infants  like 
yourself  generally  know  something  about — more's  the 
pity !  She  is  a  beauty  of  some  sixty  odd  summers,  who 
wears  a  crimson  wig,  a  few  layers  of  chalk  and  car- 
mine on  her  innocent  face,  has  a  fearfully  and  wonder- 
fully compressed  figure,  shabby  finery,  regal  jewels, 
and  diffuses  a  general  flavor  of  extreme  frowsiness. 
She  is  the  daughter  of  that  milliardaire  Methuselah  in 

petticoats,  Madame  la  Princesse  de  la  M a,  and 

was,  in  days  gone  by,  one  of  the  favorite  ladies-in- 
waiting  of  Empress  Eug6nie.  At  the  time  of  the  open- 
ing of  the  Suez  Canal  she  accompanied  her  imperial 
mistress  on  the  latter's  visit  to  Ismail  Khedive,  and,  as 
was  her  time-honored  custom,  immediately  fell  ex- 
travagantly in  love.  The  object  of  her  flame  was  a 
young  French  lawyer,  practising  here  in  those  days; 
and  so  great  was  her  infatuation  that  she  refused  to  go 
back  to  France  in  spite  of  Eugenie's  entreaties,  and 
even  commands,  and  did  not  even  return  when  her  un- 
fortunate and  long-suffering  husband  died,  which  was 
the  best  thing  he  ever  did  in  his  life.  Moreover,  as 
soon  as  the  law  allowed  her  to  do  so,  she  married  poor 

72 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

L e,  the  gullible  young  aforementioned  lawyer. 

This  little  freak  of  hers  was,  you  understand,  not  by 
any  means  her  coup  d'essai,  for  she  had  already  eloped 

with  the  Due  de  G t-C e,  and  with 

several  others  in  turn,  coming  back  to  her  husband  after 
each  escapade,  like  a  bad  penny.  That  much-to-be- 
pitied  individual  should,  in  justice,  have  received  the 
crown  of  martyrdom  at  his  death,  and  a  free  seat  in  the 
front  row  of  the  heavenly  orchestra,  for  if  ever  a  man 
was  handicapped  by  what  is  facetiously  called  his  better- 
half,  it  was  the  Duke.  When  he  was  Ambassador  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  Madame 's  giddiness  so  shocked 
the  Queen  that  she  begged  Napoleon  to  recall  his  Envoy, 
and  even  after  her  second  marriage  her  'goings-on/ 
my  dear  Captain,  to  speak  familiarly,  were  something 
so  deliciously  out  of  the  common  that  her  young  hus- 
band not  only  lost  his  practice,  but  died  of  sheer  wor- 
riment,  consumption,  and  chagrin.  The  widow's  plight 
was  a  sorry  one  then,  for  she  found  herself  here  pen- 
niless and  almost  friendless.  She  vainly  tried  to  ob- 
tain a  small  competency  from  her  dreadful  mother,  but 
it  is  easier  to  shave  an  egg  than  to  extract  one  sou 
from  those  princely  coffers,  except  for  their  owner's 
self-gratification  and  pleasure.  Really,  one  could  not 
help  pitying  the  lawyer's  derelict,  for  she  lived  with 
one  servant  in  a  little  house  immediately  behind  friend 
Nubar's  palace,  and  it  is  supposed  that  she  had  often 
not  enough  to  eat,  poor  old  soul !  Our  great  and  tender 
hearts  could  not,  of  course,  endure  this,  and  we  rallied 
round  her  with  touching  unanimity." 

"I  know,"  chuckled  Nubar;  "but  before  that  time 
her  slavey,  who  was  on  the  best  of  terms  with  my  chef, 
daily  obtained  from  him  some  delicacy  or  other  to  help 
keep  the  wolf  from  the  door ;  and  later,  do  you  remem- 
ber, when  any  of  us  called  how  she  used  always  to  men- 

73 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

tion  a  poor  widow — a  fictitious  protegee  of  hers — who 
stood  regularly  and  constantly  in  need  of  five  pounds." 

"I  had  to  give  up  calling  there/'  humbly  remarked 
Count  S  .  .  .  a.  "  My  wife  is  not  rich  enough  for  me  to 
allow  myself  such  luxuries  as  visits  at  one  hundred 
francs  apiece." 

"  But  why  did  you  go?"  queried  Captain  F e, 

his  ingenuous  blue  eyes  opened  to  their  widest  extent. 

"My  dear  lad,"  replied  Nubar,  " don't  be  hard  on  us. 
That  old  witch  is  an  embodied  chronique  scandaleuse, 
witty  as  witty  can  be,  excruciatingly  amusing,  and, 
besides,"  he  added,  naively,  "she  knows  of  all  our 
little  errors,  and  failings,  and  frailties,  and  also  how  to 
put  them  to  the  best  use  in  her  own  interest.  I'll  never 
forget  that  drawing-room  of  hers,  with  its  scanty  and 
rickety  furniture,  and  its  dingy  walls  covered  with  au- 
tograph portraits  of  every  sovereign  in  Europe,  where 
she  sat  all  day  long,  and  half  the  night  as  well,  on  a 
dilapidated,  cane-bottomed  chair,  clad  in  trailing  dra- 
peries of  doubtful  cleanliness,  and  retailing  scandal  by 
the  yard  in  her  own  inimitable  way.  The  refresh- 
ments which  she  offered  her  guests  were  also  highly 
original — eau  sucree,  for  the  most  part;  and  on  great 
occasions  a  soul-depressing  beverage — ma  consolation 
she  called  it — which  she  manufactured  herself  from 
herbs,  sugar-cane,  unripe  oranges,  and,  horror  of  hor- 
rors! funereal-looking  black  seeds,  which  floated  on 
the  surface  like  tadpoles.  B-r-r-r-r — the  mere  remem- 
brance makes  me  shudder!" 

"  Her  bons-mots  were  mostly  made  a  I'emporte  pi&ce," 
put  in  our  host.  "  Do  you  remember  how  she  asked  you 
whether  you  had  become  accustomed  to  Archbishop 
S  .  .  .  .  o's  'odor  of  sanctity/  adding  that  his  very 
handshake  was  an  extreme  unction?  She  respects 
nothing  either  on  earth,  in  heaven,  or  the  other  place." 

74 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"I  met  her  at  Spa,  just  before  coming  here,"  said  I, 
laughing;  "and  in  delicate  homage  to  the  sovereign 
of  that  region  she  wore,  in  lieu  of  a  brooch,  an  enormous 
portrait  of  him,  surrounded  with  brilliants.  Since 
she  has  inherited  her  mother's  vast  wealth  she  has  not 
improved  a  bit  in  her  dress.  She  has  taken  her  jewels 
out  of  pawn,  to  be  sure,  and  is  proudly  exhibiting  to 
the  world  her  latest  husband,  the  distressingly  youth- 
ful Vicomte  de  S 1.  She  is  deafer  than  ever, 

takes  life  as  ever  lightly,  minds  not  a  bit  the  shame 
brought  upon  her  red  wig  by  the  unsavory  conduct  of 
her  children,  and  told  me  herself,  with  some  unutterably 
ghastly  chuckles,  how  she  and  the  interesting  Vicomte 
were  hissed  out  of  church  by  an  indignant  populace  on 
their  wedding-day." 

"  Well,  if  she  comes  back  here  I'll  sell  my  poor  little 
cottage  and  pitch  a  tent  elsewhere,"  exclaimed  the 
Countess.  "  I  cannot  bear  the  contact  of  that  whited 
sepulchre." 

"  Le  tombeau  desmaris,"  muttered  the  Count. 

'"Yankee  Doodle'  says,"  I  began — 

"Oh,  don't!"  cried  the  Countess.  "Don't  mention 
that  man  to  me — a  wretch  who  receives  people  when  he 
is  clad  in  a  frock-coat  and  nothing  else." 

"My  dear  Countess  Vera,"  I  ejaculated,  "there  was 
also  a  table-cloth.  You  forget." 

"  A  table-cloth?"  fairly  shrieked  Captain  F e, 

aghast.  "Was  he  wrapped  up  in  it?" 

"No,  no,"  I  replied,  laughing.  "Do  not  run  away 
with  any  mistaken  idea  about  our  dear  Judge.  This 
is  what  really  happened:  When  Fred  returned  his 
first  call  he  found  him  seated  before  a  table,  the  cov- 
ering of  which  concealed  him  from  the  waist  down — 
et  pour  cause !  What  was  to  be  seen  of  him  was  clad 
in  a  preternaturally  correct  broadcloth  frock-coat,  a 

75 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

white  waistcoat,  an  immaculate  white  shirt,  a  tie  of 
portentous  blackness,  and  a  shiny  top-hat — for,  as  he 
judiciously  remarks,  the  Turks  keep  their  tarbooshes  on 
in-doors  out  of  respect  for  the  house,  without  even  his 
excellent  excuse  of  premature  baldness.  Throughout 
the  visit  he  never  stirred,  and  when  Fred  rose  to  take 
leave  he  said,  airily:  'Excuse  my  not  rising,  too;  but 
the  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  my  man  has  taken  my 
trousers  away  to  be  pressed,  and  has  not  brought  them 
back.  That's  why  I  remain  under  cover/  and  he  grace- 
fully raised  the  table-cloth,  displaying  his  somewhat 
massive  extremities,  clad  in  brilliant,  cherry  -  colored 
silks.  Fred  was  convulsed,  and  his  efforts  to  repress 
his  emotions  made  him  look  so  queer  that  '  Yankee 
Doodle '  at  once  offered  him  stimulants.  '  You  don't  look 
well/  quoth  he.  'Have  some  champagne.  I'll  order 
up  some  California  Imperial  Brut.  That's  the  brand 
for  me ;  it's  so  much  more  fruity  than  that  French  stuff, 
which  makes  me  nervous  and  keeps  me  awake  nights." 

"You  may  imagine  my  feelings, ".put  in  Fred.  "I 
fairly  fled,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  hall  I  ran  into  the 
Judge's  man  rushing  breathlessly  up-stairs,  three  steps 
at  a  time,  with  two  pairs  of  trousers  hanging  over  each 
arm.  'Too  late,  my  friend/  I  called  out,  to  his  evident 
and  pardonable  amazement,  for  as  I  careened  past  him 
he  gasped:  'Yes,  sir;  as  you  please,  sir!'  in  so  help- 
lessly bewildered  a  fashion  that  I  laughed  till  my  sides 
ached." 

When  the  general  merriment  had  subsided,  our  host- 
ess suddenly  proposed  a  drive  to  the  Pyramids  in  order 
to  look  up  the  jackals  and  hyenas  in  their  lonely  haunts, 
as  she  put  it,  the  moon  being  more  than  usually  mag- 
nificent. "Let  us  get  our  little  wraps;  the  fresh  air 
will  do  us  all  good  after  so  much  scandal- mongering," 
she  said,  with  a  grin. 

76 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

"My  dear  Vera,"  mildly  expostulated  her  husband, 
with  true  conjugal  irony,  "  a  little  wrap  will  be  quite 
insufficient  in  your  case." 

"He  deserves  a  big  one  on  the  knuckles,"  was  Cap- 
tain F e's  sagacious  comment;  and  then, in  a 

loud  whisper,  glancing  admiringly  at  the  lady's  opulent 
charms : 

"  When  one  doesn't  look  at  her  face  she's  a  stunner, 
I  tell  you — a  regular  out-and-out  stunner ;  and  S  .  .  .  a 
is  imprudent  to  indulge  in  such  pointed  jokes  at  her  ex- 
pense, especially  in  public,  for  she  will  make  him  pay 
dearly  for  it  later  on."  In  which  the  simple  youth 
for  once  showed  sense,  the  good  Countess  not  being, 
as  a  rule,  minded  to  allow  her  worthy  spouse  undue 
liberties. 

The  night  was  a  peerless  one,  and  the  transparent 
air  was  laden  with  the  perfume  of  millions  of  orange- 
blossoms,  jasmines,  and  gardenias  as  we  entered 
our  respective  carriages,  and  drove  in  the  direction  of 
the  Kaser-el-Nil  Bridge.  Beyond  the  Ghezireh  road 
the  sand-hills  stood  out  boldly  against  the  midnight 
sky,  their  gently  undulating  outline  yet  further  softened 
and  etherealized  by  the  wonderfully  luminous  moon- 
light, which  clothed  everything  in  unutterable  beauty. 
After  the  already  unpleasant  heat  of  the  day  the  caress- 
ing coolness  of  the  air  was  pure  delight,  and  as  we 
advanced  under  the  pellucid  heavens,  embroidered  with 
blazing  constellations,  the  impressive  silence  and  un- 
disturbed solitude  of  the  great  Sahara  were  soothing 
indeed.  In  those  days  no  enterprising  Boniface  had 
as  yet  desecrated  those  vast,  shadowy  reaches  of  the 
plain  where  rise  the  Pyramids,  and  slumbers  the 
sphinx,  with  the  painfully  vulgar  walls  of  a  mod- 
ern caravansary.  Peace  reigned  supreme  over  the 
desert's  silky  ripples;  the  limitless  distances,  grand 

77 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

through  the  sheer  force  of  their  immensity — peopled 
only  by  poetic-looking  caravans,  velvet-footed  wild 
creatures,  soaring  birds,  and  here  and  there  an  encamp- 
ment of  Bedouins — had  retained  their  primeval  magic, 
and  one  seemed  nearer  to  God  when  wandering  at  night 
upon  their  untraced  pathways. 

Alighting  in  the  shadow  of  the  greatest  of  the  three 
Pyramids,  we  strolled  towards  a  circle  of  tents  nestling 
under  the  broad,  dull-hued  foliage  of  a  solitary  wild 
fig-tree.  A  score  of  camels  were  munching  the  fodder 
laid  before  them  on  the  spotlessly  clean  feeding-cloths 
which  they  always  require  before  kneeling  down  to 
their  dinner  in  the  mincing,  dainty,  supercilious  man- 
ner peculiar  to  them ;  and  some  Bedouins,  wrapped  in 
the  fleecy  folds  of  their  snowy  burnouses,  lay  on  the 
sand  beside  them.  Rising  and  salaaming  as  we  drew 
near,  they  approached  without  betraying  any  imperti- 
nent curiosity,  and  with  that  impressive  dignity  which 
characterizes  these  African  gypsies,  gazing  at  us  with 
interest,  but  no  familiarity  or  impudence.  One  brawny 
fellow,  handsome  in  a  barbaric  way,  his  white  teeth 
revealed  in  a  frank  smile,  offered  me  a  long,  sweep- 
ing branch  of  flowering  mimosa,  saying,  in  a  guttural 
but  deeply  melodious  voice :  "  Enta  ghamila  zai  -  el- 
zambaque!"  The  poetical  and  obligatory  exaggeration 
of  this  Oriental  compliment  annoyed  me,  in  view  of 
Countess  S  .  .  .  a's  sarcastic  look;  but  the  fragrant 
flowers  were  a  welcome  gift,  and  with  a  few  words  of 
thanks  I  turned  away,  leaving  the  tall,  warrior -like 
figure  standing  like  some  magnificent  bronze  statue 
under  the  transparent  shadow  of  the  fig-tree. 

"I  did  not  know  that  you  spoke  Arabic/'  murmured 
Count  T i,  in  my  ear,  with  his  habitual  air  of  im- 
parting state  secrets  even  when  he  made  the  most 
trivial  remarks. 

78 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  Oh,"  I  replied,  laughing,  "  I  can  just  speak  it  enough 
to  make  myself  disagreeable  to  natives,  or  to  my  own 
servants." 

"  What  did  that  superb  caryatid  of  a  man  tell  you?" 
he  continued.  "  Whatever  it  was,  it  did  not  please  my 
charming  compatriot  the  Countess." 

"He  compared  me  to  the  lilies  of  the  field.  Very 
handsome  of  him,  was  it  not?" 

"  Those  of  Solomon,  who  neither  toil  nor  spin?  That 
would  be  very  unjust,  for  if  ever  a  man  has  found 
a  helpmate  in  his  wife,  it  is  my  friend  Fred  over 
yonder." 

It  was  useless  to  thank  this  talon-rouge  Muscovite 
for  his  flattering  speeches,  for  they  formed  part  of  his 
stock  in  trade,  flowed  relentlessly  from  his  thin  and 
rather  cruel-looking  lips  like  blood  from  a  severed 
artery,  and  were  not  to  be  checked  excepting  by  the 
most  drastic  measures;  so,  with  a  deprecating  little 
shrug  of  the  shoulders,  I  drew  near  to  the  rest  of  the 
party.  Seated  in  a  circle  on  the  exquisitely  fine,  silvered 
sand,  they  were  quaffing  iced  tea,  and  munching  de- 
licious fruit  brought  in  a  specially  constructed  freezer 
by  the  Countess's  matchless  major-domo. 

"  Behold  the  queen  of  the  desert,  the  loveliest  of  the 
lilies  I"  sang  out  that  lady  in  shrill  falsetto,  quoting 
from  my  Bedouin  admirer  in  a  most  irritating  man- 
ner. "Behold,  0  stars! — moon! — silent  monuments  of 
a  glorious  past;  behold,  0  humble  mortals,  the  em- 
bodiment of  all  that  is  beautiful  and  perfect ! — a  being 
fiery  as  a  flame,  daring  as  a  devil,  and,  alas,  mes  petits 
enfants,  cold  as  an  icicle,  and  contemptuous  as  a  god- 
dess to  all  who,  like  us  poor  mortals,  are  but  made  of 
flesh!" 

This  tirade  was  so  unexpected,  and  so  out  of  keeping 
with  Madame  S  .  .  .  a's  ordinarily  perfect  breeding,  that 

79 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  made  her  a  present  of  a  stare,  and  remained  other- 
wise to  all  intents  and  purposes  completely  oblivious 
of  her  aggressive  tone.  I  knew  that  she  did  not 
like  me,  but  until  then  she  had  been  invariably  most 
scrupulously  courteous — nay,  even  empressee  towards 
myself — and  I  could  not  imagine  what  had  set  fire  to 
such  a  mine  of  sarcasm.  I  was  to  experience  yet 
another  surprise  of  the  same  nature  within  a  few 
minutes,  for  I  distinctly  heard  her  whisper  to  Count 

T i :  "I  can't  help  it ;  she  exasperates  me ;  you 

men  are  bound  to  rave  over  that  style,  but  to  me  she 
seems  a  cross  between  a  block  of  ice  and  a  steeple- 
chase Jock." 

The  low,  delighted  laugh  which  greeted  this  more 
than  questionable  sally  gave  me  reason  to  reflect  upon 
the  great  statesman's  frankness  and  loyalty,  but  of 
course  I  gave  no  sign  of  having  heard  that  delectable 
sentence,  and  remained  immovable,  seemingly  atten- 
tive to  the  conversation  going  on  between  Fred  and 
Nubar  Pasha. 

"  Why  do  you  run  after  her  as  you  do,  if  you  dislike 

her  so  much?"  I  heard  H o,  who,  like  myself,  had 

evidently  lost  nothing  of  the  Countess's  statement, 
say,  in  a  low  tone. 

"  She  is  a  dangerous  enemy  to  make  for  one's  self," 
was  the  candid  and  unblushing  reply.  "  Elle  a  le  bras 
long,  and  is  still  tres  bien  en  cour  at  Vienna  and  Peters- 
burg, in  spite  of  her  idiotic  marriage.  Really,  few 
people  can  afford  to  anger  her." 

Completely  edified  as  to  the  charming  Vera's  true 
feelings  and  motives,  I  now  rose.  "  Non  vera  sed 
verissima,"  I  murmured  to  myself,  and  remarking  aloud 
that  as  the  sun  was  about  to  rise  the  hour  had  arrived 

for  us  to  go  to  bed,  I  made  a  sign  to  H o,  who 

had  asked  for  a  seat  in  my  carriage,  to  drive  back  to 

80 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Cairo,  took  leave  of  the  rest,  and,  followed  by  him  and 
by  Fred,,  left  that  gay  company  to  finish  their  chat  and 
their  tea  by  the  light  of  the  waning  moon. 

The  sun  was  rising  in  good  earnest  as  we  passed 
swiftly  under  the  vault  of  grand  old  trees  which  roof 
the  homeward  road.  In  the  middle  distance  the  calm 
waters  of  the  Nile  were  still  partly  shrouded  in  gauzy 
folds  of  pearl-hued  mist,  tinted  here  and  there  with  the 
rosy  radiance  of  morn.  Flocks  of  pink -plumed  fla- 
mingoes arose  from  the  bronze-brown  reeds,  and  just  as 
we  reached  the  bank  of  the  river  the  golden  gates 
of  day  opened,  to  flood  the  awakening  world  with 
dazzling  brilliance.  Through  the  tall  branches  of 
bamboos  outlined  sharply  against  the  glory  of  that 
peerless  dawn,  the  water  showed  like  a  broad  azure 
band,  crinkled  with  interlacing  lines  of  indescribably 
delicate  amethyst  and  opal.  I  sighed  as  we  left  all 
this  splendor  behind  us  to  re-enter  the  already  crowded 
streets.  Early  as  was  the  hour,  long  lines  of  laden 
camels,  led  by  blue-robed  fellaheen,  groups  of  soldiers 
wearing  the  English  red  jacket  or  the  cerulean  of  the 
khedivial  troops,  and  Eastern  cavaliers  mounted  on 
half-broken  Barb  steeds,  their  velvet  saddles  profusely 
embroidered  with  bullion,  were  passing  to  and  fro, 
raising  clouds  of  dust  which  shimmered  like  finely  pow- 
dered gold.  Swiftly  my  horses  trotted  through  the 
throng,  which  fell  back  at  the  ringing  challenges  of  the 
two  saises  preceding  them,  and  a  few  minutes  later 

stopped  to  set  down  H o  at  the  portals  of  the 

Russian  Legation. 

As  he  bent  over  my  hand  he  said,  meaningly :  "  You 
have,  I  fear,  no  friend  in  Madame  S  .  .  .  a,  and  she 
really  is  a  very  venomous  person,  ready  to  show  her 
teeth  at  the  slightest  provocation." 

I  laughed  a  merry,  light-hearted  laugh;  the  morn- 
6  81 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

ing   was   too  faultless  to  be    spoiled    by   unpleasant 
thoughts. 

" Que  voulez-vous?"  I  replied,  carelessly.  "Let  her 
show  her  teeth,  if  it  pleaseth  her!  I  will  show  mine, 
too,  then,  and  the  advantage  won't  be  on  her  side." 


CHAPTER  IV 

It  was  a  little  isle,  scarce  larger  than 

A  leaf  upon  the  waters  floating  free, 
Quiet  it  seemed,  as  all  remote  from  man; 

The  palm,  the  myrtle,  and  the  orange-tree 
Grew,  with  sweet  vines  in  flowery  tangles  wound. 
Save  but  for  water-fowl,  there  was  no  sound 
Or  murmuring  winds,  and  widely  all  around 

The  heedless  river  drifted  to  the  sea.  M.  M. 

MEANWHILE  our  viceregal  friend's  situation  was 
becoming  more  involved  and  difficult  than  it  had  ever 
been  before,  and  day  by  day  his  seat  in  the  saddle  of 
affairs  seemed  more  insecure,  thanks  to  his  weak  and 
vacillating  character  and  his  lamentable  inability  to 
follow  a  definite  policy.  His  political  tactics  could  not 
be  better  described  than  by  the  word  "  silly " ;  neither 
could  he  be  recommended  for  his  frankness,  for  he 
made  a  practice  of  talking  contemptuously  and  slight- 
ingly of  his  countrymen  to  Europeans,  and  to  the  latter 
in  an  equally  disagreeable  manner  about  the  former, 
pathetically  oblivious  of  the  fact  that  natives  and  for- 
eigners subsequently  compared  notes  upon  the  subject, 
to  the  great  disparagement  of  the  esteem  and  respect 
due  to  a  reigning  sovereign.  It  was  extremely  amus- 
ing to  hear  him  abuse  the  French  Plenipotentiary  when 
talking  to  that  functionary's  English  colleague,  and  a 
few  moments  later  to  find  him  bitterly  complaining  of 
the  British  Representative  to  France's  Envoy,  while 
often  in  the  course  of  the  same  evening  he  would  seek 
to  ingratiate  himself  with  the  German  and  Russian 

83 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Ministers  by  alternately  speaking  evil  of  each  in  con- 
fidence to  the  other  one.  This  did  not  prevent  him,  it 
goes  without  saying,  from  assembling  later  on  his  na- 
tive cronies  around  him,  and  from  denouncing  to  them 
most  violently  "those  unclean  dogs  of  Christians "  whose 
mothers'  graves  he  piously  trusted  that  the  pigs  would 
defile. 

His  intrigues  were,  moreover,  so  childish,  so  shallow, 
and  so  conveniently  transparent,  so  easily  fathomed 
and  thwarted,  that  he  was  an  invaluable  dummy  ruler, 
just  exactly,  in  fact,  what  the  British  needed;  and  it 
was  for  this  reason,  and  this  reason  alone,  that  they 
maintained  him  on  his  throne  in  the  teeth  of  much  diffi- 
culty and  despite  serious  opposition  from  the  other  great 
Powers.  It  was  all  extremely  diverting  to  persons 
who,  like  ourselves,  were  behind  the  scenes.  Poor 
Tewfik  had  the  unfortunate  habit  of  stuffing  his  pock- 
ets with  confidential  letters  and  important  secret  papers, 
which  practice  was  both  regrettable  and  imprudent,  as 
his  valet — an  ex-private  of  one  of  the  English  regiments 
belonging  to  the  army  of  occupation — naturally  found 
them,  examined  them,  and  regularly  disclosed  their  con- 
tents to  his  bosom  friend,  a  Scotch  dentist  of  great 
ability  in  more  senses  than  one,  with  whom  he  spent 
an  hour  or  two  every  evening.  Over  a  bottle  of  whis- 
key, for  which  these  gentlemen  had  a  praiseworthy  and 
patriotic  fondness,  they  would  whisper  into  each  other's 
ears  matters  of  the  highest  possible  interest,  and,  I  may 
add  here  en  passant,  that  the  amount  of  attention  re- 
quired by  the  teeth  of  the  members  of  the  British  Le- 
gation was  at  that  time  quite  phenomenal. 

Tewfik's  perpetual  double-dealing  would  have  un- 
doubtedly ended  in  his  irretrievable  ruin  had  it  not 
been  for  the  restraining  and  sagacious  influence  of  his 
wife — the  shrewd,  clever,  and  eminently  common- 

84 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

sense  Khediviah — a  mattresse  femme,  if  ever  there  was 
one,  of  whom  her  timorous  husband  stood  in  mortal 
awe. 

The  Vicereine — as  she  was  generally  called  at  Cairo 
— was  very  different  from  the  popular  conception  of  an 
Oriental  favorite.  Extremely  wealthy  in  her  own  right, 
courageous,  energetic,  learned,  and  withal  somewhat 
overbearing  and  imperious,  she  never  permitted  her 
husband  to  take  other  wives,  although,  according  to 
the  Koran,  the  true  believer  is  entitled  to  the  generous 
number  of  four  legitimate  spouses,  and  of  as  many 
"  unofficial "  ones  as  he  cares  to  assume. 

A  woman  of  remarkable  taste  and  refinement,  she 
made  a  point  of  creating  for  her  husband  that  unspeak- 
ably priceless  home-atmosphere  so  sadly  lacking  in 
Oriental  households;  indeed,  their  life  together  was 
modelled  on  that  of  European  rather  than  of  Asiatic 
royalties,  and  although  the  Vicereine's  private  apart- 
ments were  decorated  and  furnished  with  more  lavish 
luxury  than  those  of  any  empress  or  queen  of  my  ac- 
quaintance, yet  nothing  therein  denoted  the  lazy  self- 
indulgence  and  emptiness  of  purpose  peculiar  to  all 
born  and  bred  occupants  of  the  zenana.  Still  singu- 
larly beautiful  was  Emineh-Hanem  at  the  time  I  am 
writing  about,  although,  according  to  Egyptian  ideas, 
she  was  already  past  her  youth.  Aristocratic  to  the 
backbone — she  was  a  daughter  of  that  remarkable 
personage,  Prince  El-Hamy  Pasha — she  looked  rather 
Spanish  than  Turkish,  and  her  large,  velvety  eyes, 
her  lips  scarlet  like  the  flower  of  the  camellia,  her  skin 
of  a  creamy  whiteness  which  might  well  put  to  despair 
the  very  magnolia  blossoms  in  her  gardens,  formed  a 
tout-ensemble  brilliant  and  lovely,  like  a  Titian  or  a 
Rubens  premiere  maniere,  and  marred  only  by  a  trifle 
too  much  embonpoint.  She  dressed  almost  invariably 

85 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

&  I'Europe'enne,  and  wore,  as  a  rule,  white  silken  or 
gauzy  tissues  profusely  trimmed  with  exquisite  laces, 
and  illumined  by  showers  of  superb  pearls  and  dia- 
monds which  admirably  suited  her  opulent  beauty. 
Herself  she  had  no  special  love  for  jewels,  but  Tewfik, 
who  was  inordinately  fond  of  all  pomp  and  glitter, 
insisted  upon  her  wearing  more  gems  than  would 
be  considered  de  mise  at  some  great  court  recep- 
tion, even  when  she  was  clad  in  a  simple  neglige; 
but  I  am  bound  to  say  that  the  picture  she  present- 
ed, thus  enwrapped  with  magnificence,  like  a  pearl  in 
the  iridescence  of  its  shell,  was  a  singularly  attrac- 
tive one. 

Possessed  of  the  most  delicate  tact,  intuition,  and 
persuasiveness,  she  removed  from  her  lord's  path  many 
difficulties  created  by  his  hopelessly  crooked  nature, 
and  although  she  was  naturally  obliged  to  remain 
officially  in  the  background,  she  nevertheless  was, 
without  the  possibility  of  a  doubt,  the  true  and  only 
power  behind  the  throne;  and  had  Tewfik  followed  her 
dictates  more  loyally  and  constantly,  he  would  assuredly 
have  avoided  the  shoals  upon  which  his  political  bark 
so  often  came  near  to  being  irreparably  destroyed. 

At  any  rate,  Emineh-Hanem's  firm  hand  and  ex- 
cellent management  were  traceable  throughout  the 
palaces  which  she  in  turn  graced  with  her  presence, 
for  the  customary  incongruities  of  like  establishments 
— a  combination  of  Oriental  magnificence  and  Oriental 
squalor  and  dirt — were  not  allowed  wherever  the  dainty 
rule  of  that  charming  woman  extended.  Her  table 
appointments  were  as  complete  and  recherche  as  the 
most  fastidious  gourmet  might  desire,  and  the  meals 
which  she  took  en  tete-&-t$te  with  her  royal  spouse 
were  not,  as  is  invariably  the  case  in  harim'liks,  com- 
posed of  unpalatably  tepid  preparations  served  on 

86 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Sevres  porcelain  or  gorgeous  gold  -  and  -  silver  plate, 
handed  round  by  slipshod  attendants  and  eaten  with 
the  fingers,  but  of  excellently  cooked  viands,  hand- 
somely dished  up  and  correctly  put  on  a  well-set  table 
by  carefully  trained  servants.  Nor  were  the  absolute 
tidiness,  cleanliness,  and  daintiness  of  the  napery 
overlooked,  while  flowers  and  many  pleasing  tidbits 
added  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  menu  ordered  by  this 
august  housekeeper. 

While  on  this  subject  I  must  not  forget  to  mention 
the  Khediviah's  great  sagacity  with  regard  to  the 
bringing  up  of  her  children.  Far  from  entirely  relin- 
quishing all  authority  over  her  sons  as  soon  as  they 
reached  the  fateful  age  of  eight — as  is  customary  for 
mothers  to  do  throughout  the  East — she  continued,  after 
a  very  decided  fashion  of  her  own,  to  preside  over  their 
education,  their  recreations, and  especially  their  hygiene. 

Abbas  Pasha  Helmy,  the  present  Khedive,  was  then 
a  little  fellow  of  about  ten  years  old,  bright,  jolly,  in- 
telligent, and  very  courteous  of  manner,  who  spoke 
equally  well  in  French  and  English,  and  cut  a  most 
gallant  little  figure  when  galloping  his  pony  at  the  side 
of  the  tall  bay  stallion  ridden  by  his  English  tutor, 
Mr.  Butler,  an  Oxford  graduate  of  much  amiability 
and  gentleness  of  character.  He  and  his  brother  went 
daily,  accompanied  by  this  invaluable  mentor,  to  attend 
the  Ali  School,  founded  by  their  father  at  the  urgent 
instigation  of  their  wise  mother,  and  which  is  situated 
on  the  Abdeen  Square,  immediately  opposite  the  khe- 
divial  winter  palace.  Some  eighty  or  a  hundred  boys 
belonging  to  the  Egyptian  and  Turkish  aristocracy 
were  taught  within  the  spacious  halls  of  this  model 
establishment,  and,  strange  to  relate,  entirely  gratui- 
tously, Tewfik  Khedive  providing  for  everything,  in- 
cluding tuition,  a  very  luxuriously  and  bountifully 

87 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

set  table,  and  the  prettiest  and  nattiest  little  military 
uniforms  which  have  ever  flattered  the  budding  pride 
of  well-born  and  well-bred  lads.  There  the  two  prince- 
lings were  placed,  according  to  the  commands  of  their 
parents,  on  a  footing  of  absolute  equality  with  their 
schoolmates,  no  one  being  even  permitted  to  address 
them  while  there  either  as  "  Prince  "  or  "  Highness." 

Full  of  fun  and  mischief,  little  Abbas  and  his  younger 
brother,  Mehemet-Ali,were  the  most  winning  and  comely 
children  imaginable,  and  nothing  could  be  more  touch- 
ing than  the  adoring  affection  which  they  bestowed 
upon  their  parents,  especially,  be  it  confessed,  upon 
their  father,  for  "  mamma  "  was  sometimes  rather  strict 
with  them,  whereas  one  of  Tewfik's  redeeming  qualities 
was  his  passionate  devotion  to  his  offspring,  although 
in  this,  as  in  all  other  respects,  he  was  inclined  to  be 
ill-advised  and  weak.  I  had  the  privilege  of  reading 
several  letters  written  by  the  little  Princes  during  a 
trip  which  they  took  towards  the  first  cataract  on 
the  viceregal  dahabieh,  and  was  delighted  both  with 
the  remarkably  perfect  English  in  which  they  were 
couched,  and  with  the  superscriptions  of  "My  dear, 
dear  papa,"  and  "My  own  beloved  mamma,"  followed 
up  by  such  tender  and  touching  expressions  of  love 
and  respect  that  these  epistles  argued  well,  indeed, 
for  the  youthful  writers'  depth  of  feeling. 

Their  small  sister,  Princess  Kadshat-Hanem,  was 
then  the  prettiest  little  fairy  that  ever  was,  a  diminu- 
tive houri,  with  slender,  supple,  rounded  limbs,  big 
black  eyes  pailletted  with  gold,  and  a  silky  mane  of 
wavy,  raven  hair  tumbling  about  her  dimpled  shoul- 
ders in  a  superb  profusion  of  sombre  silkiness,  which 
in  the  high  lights  seemed  to  irradiate  fine  strands  of 
spun  sunshine. 

Remarkable  hair  that,  and  such  as  is  seldom  seen  for 

88 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

rare  quality  and  texture,  and  which  was  often  crowned 
by  a  tiny  scarlet  tarboush,  thickly  embroidered  with 
gold  and  seed-pearls,  and  finished  off  by  a  jingling 
tassel  of  gems. 

This  radiant  baby  was  the  joy  of  the  viceregal  house, 
and  was  allowed  a  far  greater  amount  of  liberty  and 
indulgence  than  fell  to  the  share  of  her  brothers.  She 
was  accorded  a  perpetual  free  entree  to  her  mother's 
boudoir — a  casket  worthy  of  such  a  jewel — the  furni- 
ture of  which  was  of  sandal-wood  inlaid  with  pearl,  up- 
holstered with  snowy  satins  painted  and  worked  with 
pale  roses  and  jasmine,  and  with  treasures  of  needle- 
work covering  walls  and  ceiling  in  the  shape  of  great 
square  panels,  whereon  clusters  of  delicate  bloom  were 
raised  in  bold  relief  from  a  background  of  deftly  in- 
terwoven silver  threads. 

Whatever  Tewfik's  faults,  he  was  par  excellence  a 
family  man,  and  nothing  pleased  him  better  than  to  be 
left  in  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of  his  home.  He  had 
had  little  enough  opportunity  to  appreciate  les  joies 
de  la  famille  before  his  marriage,  poor  fellow,  for  his 
birth,  and  the  strange  timidity  and  indecision  of  his 
character,  rendered  him  an  object  of  cruel  aversion  to 
his  father.  He  was  the  offspring  of  a  mere  fellah 
slave-girl,  who  had  momentarily  captivated,  and  sub- 
sequently disgusted,  Khedive  Ismail,  and  all  the  lat- 
ter's  paternal  affection  was  given  to  Prince  Hassan, 
his  accomplished  third  son,  the  child  of  his  legitimate 
and  favorite  wife,  a  lady  both  highly  born  and  won- 
derfully beautiful.  Poor  Prince  Hassan!  He  was 
one  of  the  bravest  and  kindest  of  men — tall  and  ex- 
tremely soldierly  in  appearance,  and  displayed  the 
most  magnificent  gallantry  during  the  Abyssinian 
War,  in  which  he  had  the  misfortune  to  be  captured. 
The  barbarous  warriors  of  King  John  were  subjecting 

89 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

all  the  prisoners  they  made  to  the  most  shameful  and 
brutal  of  mutilations,  but  when  the  Prince  himself  was 
taken,  his  orthodox  Majesty  of  Abyssinia  showed  clem- 
ency to  the  extent  of  merely  branding  him  in  the  hand 
with  the  Christian  cross.  From  that  day  he  was  forced 
to  wear  a  glove  in  order  to  conceal  this  supreme  shame 
from  his  fellow-Moslems. 

No  act  of  personal  courage  or  bravery  was  ever  im- 
puted to  Tewfik,  unless  we  allow  one  of  a  somewhat 
passive  nature,  which  he  performed  at  the  urgent  re- 
quest of  his  wife  —  namely,  his  visit  to  the  hospital 
wards  during  the  cholera  epidemic  of  1883.  Ismail, 
on  the  contrary — to  give  the  devil  his  due — had  pluck 
•and  courage  &  revendre,  and  greatly  admired  people 
similarly  endowed. 

But  1  fear  I  am  being  carried  away  by  those  delight- 
ful memories  concerning  the  intimate  side  of  the  Ab- 
deen  Viceregal  Court  that  had  for  a  background  the 
private  apartments  of  the  Khedivia.  Once  one  had 
passed  the  portals  of  the  harim'lik,  and  had  been  ush- 
ered into  her  presence  by  the  "  Dastour !  dastour!"* 
of  the  chief  eunuch,  and  the  low  salaam  of  Gulbdyaz, 
the  favorite  slave  (whose  soft  name  means  "  white 
rose").-  presto  subitto,  one  received  the  impression  of 
entering  another  and  far  lovelier  world  than  ours. 
There,  coffee  and  delectable  cigarettes  awaited  one  on 
preciously  inlaid  koursis  (tabourets),  and  Emineh- 
Hanem's  sweet  smile  of  welcome  gave  the  finishing 
touch  to  one's  enjoyment. 

How  wise  Tewfik  would  have  been  to  confide  ab- 
solutely in  his  remarkable  wife  I  will  show  later;  but 
unfortunately,  when  he  felt  that  he  had  been  seri- 
ously at  fault,  and,  to  put  it  baldly,  that  he  deserved  a 

*  A  Persian  word,  meaning  "  permit  me." 
90 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

scolding,  he  was  prone  to  studiously  avoid  her  uncom- 
fortably direct  questions  and  clear,  penetrating  eyes. 
So  he  remained  tangled  in  his  own  toils,  which  was  all 
the  worse  for  himself,  and  for  others  as  well. 

The  Ramadan  came  late  that  year — always  an  un- 
fortunate circumstance  for  the  Faithful,  as  the  priva- 
tions imposed  upon  them  during  that  month  of  fasting 
and  prayer  are  far  harder  to  bear  in  spring  or  summer 
than  during  the  colder  season.  For  the  non-participants 
in  this  strict  time  of  religious  enthusiasm  this  has,  how- 
ever, its  advantages,  for  the  bitterness  of  the  long,  hot 
day  is  compensated  by  a  recrudescence  of  jollifications, 
illuminations,  and  gayeties  from  sunset  to  sunrise,  and 
Cairo  is  never  so  picturesque  as  when  glittering,  orange- 
hued  lampions,  shaped  like  stars,  are  swung  in  constel- 
lations high  up  in  the  sky  from  the  tall  minarets  of  the 
citadel,  the  mosque  of  Saida-Zenabe,  and  other  thrice 
holy  sanctuaries.  Multitudes  of  hungry  and  thirsty 
people,  who  in  the  ardor  of  their  fanaticism  have  not 
indulged  even  in  the  soothing  relief  of  a  single  cigarette 
for  twelve  weary  hours,  invade  the  cafe's  and  restau- 
rants, or  foregather  at  street  corners  to  engulf  fruit, 
vegetables,  sweetmeats,  roast  mealies,  and  other  deli- 
cacies for  which  their  exhausted  condition  furnishes 
the  best  of  condiments.  Everybody  is  feverish,  ner- 
vous, and  amazingly  excitable,  and  all  look  resentfully 
at  the  dazzling  moon,  which  marks  with  its  every  change 
the  steps  of  their  Calvary. 

"  Be  of  good  cheer,  the  sullen  month  will  die, 
And  a  young  moon  requite  us  by-and-by  ; 
Look  how  the  old  one,   meagre,  bent,  and   wan 
With  age  and  fast,  is  fainting  from  the  sky," 

the  poor,  tortured  Moslems  seem  to  be  crooning  to  them- 
selves in  expectation  of  the  joys  to  come,  and  one  could 

91 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

readily  imagine  them  going  nightly  "to  the  potter's 
house  alone"  to  feel  the  comforting  presence  of  those 
"  shapes  of  clay  "  beloved  of  Omar. 

That  particular  Ramadan  is  very  present  to  my 
mind,  with  its  cacophonous  nights,  the  greater  por- 
tion of  which  we  spent  on  the  flat  roof  of  our  house 
watching  Sirius,  ardent  and  splendid,  scintillate  might- 
ily, and  Venus,  truly  "a  lamp  that  outburn'd  Can- 
opus/'  rising  in  the  pure  loveliness  of  the  Occident; 
while  over  the  big,  wakeful  city  multicolored  lights  of 
excessive  brightness  looked  like  swarms  of  fallen  stars 
struggling  in  the  gauzy  folds  of  the  enshrouding  heat 
vapors. 

One  night  especially  it  was  so  oppressively  and  un- 
seasonably hot  that  I  could  not  sleep,  and  at  the  very 
first  flush  of  dawn  I  rose,  and,  throwing  a  loose  robe 
over  my  night  -  dress,  walked  down  the  steps  leading 
to  the  gardens  and  made  my  way  to  the  deep  pool  of 
running  water  which  bubbled  between  glistening 
walls  of  pink  marble  under  the  interlacing  branches 
of  the  jasmines  and  oleanders,  and  where  I  loved  to 
go  for  a  dip  before  breakfast,  or  at  night  when  the  bright 
African  moon  lent  its  silvery  beauty  to  the  tiniest  leaf- 
let trembling  on  the  uttermost  end  of  a  bough. 

An  unsatisfied  longing  for  sleep  lingered  like  cob- 
webs in  drowsy  corners  of  my  brain,  and  it  was  with  a 
distinct  thrill  of  pleasure  that  I  inhaled  the  pungent 
odor  of  the  bay-hedge,  which  I  brushed  with  the  hem 
of  my  peignoir,  and  breathed  in  the  fragrance  of  the 
opening  flowers  from  the  parterres.  The  sky  had, 
with  the  near  approach  of  the  sun,  assumed  the  hue  of 
summer  roses,  shot  here  and  there  with  amethyst  and 
pearly  gray.  All  was  intensely  quiet ;  there  was  no 
sound  of  some  unseen  gardener  raking  the  gravel  of 
the  paths,  and  even  my  pet  gazelles  in  their  vine-grown 

92 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

enclosure  were  still  asleep  on  their  little  beds  of  fresh 
hay.  At  the  edge  of  the  pool  I  stopped,  looking  ap- 
preciatively at  the  transparent,  mirror-like  surface, 
where  blue  and  pink  lotus  cast  their  delicately  tinted 
reflections.  How  inviting  this  broad,  clear,  clean 
basin  was !  I  cast  a  hasty  glance  towards  the  distant 
house,  whereon  shreds  of  fleecy  mist  still  hung  like  the 
fringe  of  a  vanishing  curtain,  but  it  was  apparently  un- 
tenanted  save  by  obdurate  sleepers ;  and  as,  after  all,  a 
long  night-robe  is  not  a  bad  substitute  for  a  bathing-suit, 
when  one  is  all  alone  in  nature's  dew- washed  domain, 
I  cast  off  my  outer  draperies,  and  with  arms  shot  out 
above  my  head  I  sprang  from  the  slippery,  rounded 
edge  into  ten  feet  of  deliciously  cool  water.  Surely 
such  a  plunge  is  the  most  perfect  of  human  sensations, 
and  makes  one  feel  wide-awake,  fresh,  neat,  and  strange- 
ly eager  to  live  a  pure,  faultless  life. 

As  I  shook  my  dripping  hair  out  of  my  eyes  it  seemed 
to  me  that  I  should  like  above  all  things  to  buy  some 
great,  sunshiny  Eastern  kingdom  and  reign  there 
alone,  forgetful  of  stupid  civilization  with  its  big,  un- 
healthful  dinners,  its  blundering  politics,  and  its  hid- 
eous conventionalities.  Or,  at  least,  if  not  a  kingdom, 
some  green  place  of  palm-trees,  some  "chosen  plot  of 
fertile  land  "  ringed  round  by  the  desert  or  the  sea, 
which  I  could  shut  to  all  comers,  and  hold  under  ab- 
solute sway  in  hermit  and  Corean  sovereignty.  "A 
hermit?  Yes,  that  would  be  my  ideal  r61e  exactly,"  I 
thought,  as  I  lazily  floated  with  my  hands  behind  my 
head.  "  Why,  dear  me!  there  is  one  here  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, and  on  an  island,  too!  I  will  go  this  very 
day  to  call  on  him,  and  get  points  about  the  manage- 
ment of  my  future  domain!" 

I  drew  myself  forthwith  out  of  the  water  by  means 
of  the  lip  of  the  fountain,  thrust  my  feet  into  my  slip- 

93 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

pers,  and  ran  home  as  swiftly  as  the  clinging,  drenched 
batiste  would  allow.  The  person  who  had  so  suddenly 
come  to  my  remembrance  was  one  of  the  strangest 
that  Egypt  has  ever  known — namely,  the  once  cele- 
brated Due  d'A  . .  .  .  t,  and  his  hermitage  was  the  poeti- 
cal river-isle  of  Rhoda.  I  had  not  visited  him  in  his 
paradisal  Thebaide  as  often  as  I  might  have  done,  more 
was  the  pity,  and  the  pleasing  prospect  of  so  doing 
put  me  at  once  in  the  best  of  humors;  indeed,  it  seemed 
to  me  as  if  I  could  say,  with  Titus,  that  I  had  already 
saved  my  day,  and  I  went  through  my  morning's  routine 
duties  with  more  than  usual  facility.  I  dictated  a  host 
of  long-neglected  letters,  interviewed  the  chef,  gave  the 
head  gardener  his  orders  for  the  day's  table  decorations, 
took  my  usual  round  through  the  stables,  and  entered 
the  dining-room  at  lunch-time  with  a  tremendous  ap- 
petite— a  rare  occurrence,  especially  on  a  hot  day. 

The  chill  of  that  early  morning  plunge  had  worked 
wonders,  and  I  felt  really  satisfied  with  myself  for  hav- 
ing been  usefully  employed  before  one  o'clock,  in  the 
tropics. 

"I  am  going  to  ride  over  to  Rhoda  this  afternoon," 
I  told  Fred,  unfolding  my  napkin  and  helping  myself 
to  iced  oranges  from  the  dish  at  my  elbow. 

"What  on  earth  are  you  going  to  do  that  for?"  he 
replied,  with  genuine  astonishment.  "I  thought  you 
were  booked  for  Mme.  de  M o's  garden-party?" 

"  So  I  am,  my  dearest  fellow — so  I  am ;  but  where 
would  be  the  use  of  making  an  engagement  if  it  was 
not  with  a  view  of  breaking  it  when  convenient?" 

"Your  views  are  scandalously  unprincipled,"  he 
laughed;  "but  this  does  not  tell  me  in  the  least  why 
you  contemplate  a  dusty  and  blazingly  hot  ride  through 
old  Cairo  on  such  a  day  as  this. " 

"Your  lack  of  perspicacity  grieves  me,  Fred," I  said, 

94 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

with  some  gravity.  "Cannot  you  guess  that  I  am 
longing  to  have  a  glimpse  of  that  dear,  old,  fat  hermit- 
Duke,  the  uncrowned  king  of  Rhoda?" 

"  When  did  this  brilliant  idea  strike  you?" 

"At  sunrise,  in  the  middle  of  the  fountain." 

"Oh,  come,  now,"  he  exclaimed;  "please  draw  it 
mild." 

"  That's  precisely  what  I  am  doing,  for  I  carry  con- 
sideration for  your  feelings  to  such  an  extreme  that  I 
actually  spare  you  the  description  of  the  inordinate 
desire  which  overcame  me  at  the  same  moment — to 
purchase  some  disused  Oriental  kingdom  for  my  per- 
sonal gratification  and  aggrandizement." 

"  Well,  there  certainly  is  no  accounting  for  what  you 
may  want  to  do  next,  but  in  the  meanwhile  a  hurried 
trip  to  England  is  far  more  probable  for  us  than  any 
further  advance  towards  the  Far  East." 

"Dear  me,  what  makes  you  think  so?  Providence 
will  be  acting  with  downright  brutality  towards  us  if 
this  be  really  the  case." 

"I  am  afraid,  nevertheless,  that  that  is  just  what 
is  in  store  for  us.  The  Khedive  plainly  hinted  that 
such  were  his  immediate  intentions  this  morning." 

"Oh,  bother  the  Khedive!  I  am  heartily  sick  of 
him.  He  is  the  shilly-shalliest  wet  blanket  of  a  nui- 
sance I  have  ever  met  with.  But  still,  while  on  this 
subject  I  must  warn  you  that  you  had  better  change 
the  cipher,  for  your  present  secretary  inspires  me  with 
unlimited  distrust." 

"  You  are  pleased  to  be  severe.  Do  not  lose  sight  of 
the  fact  that  he  once  bore  the  same  relation  to  King 
Victor  Emmanuel  as  did  the  client  to  his  patron,  Mae- 
cenas." 

"Do  you  mean  the  one  who  made  the  celebrated 
remark,  'I  don't  sleep  for  everybody'?" 

95 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Your  erudition  does  you  credit,  and  you  see  me 
proud  of  it.  But  why  do  you  distrust  Luigi  Effendi?" 

"I  suspect  him  of  playing  a  double  game,  that  is 
all.  But  I  am  stalking  him,  if  you  will  graciously 
allow  me  to  use  so  sporting  a  term,  and  I  will  catch 
him  red-handed  yet." 

"  The  code-books  are  under  lock  and  key.  How  could 
he  get  hold  of  them,  pray?" 

I  laughed  somewhat  derisively,  and,  lunch  being 
now  at  an  end,  rose,  and,  without  replying,  made  my 
way  to  the  patio,  where  I  invariably  took  my  daily 
postprandial  siesta.  The  purple  velum  which  shaded 
it  from  morning  to  night  had  been  tightly  drawn  to, 
and  a  delicious  coolness  pervaded  this  favorite  retreat 
of  mine.  With  a  little,  contented  sigh  I  swung  my- 
self into  a  hammock  slung  between  two  stout  lemon- 
trees  and  prepared  to  enjoy  a  well-earned  period  of 
rest,  but  for  a  comparatively  long  time  the  refreshing 
sleep  I  sought  evaded  me  in  the  most  exasperating 
fashion.  The  doubts  I  had  mentioned  to  Fred  with 
regard  to  the  loyalty  of  his  secretary  seemed  suddenly 
to  acquire  tenfold  gravity,  and  I  turned  over  in  my 
mind  with  fatiguing  persistency  the  best  means  of 
convincing  myself  of  the  man's  treachery.  That  he 
was  possessed  of  a  singularly  elastic  conscience  was 
sufficiently  proved  by  the  fact  that  he  was  quite  in- 
decently proud  of  the  excessively  friendly  relations 
which  had  once  existed  between  his  beautiful  wife  and 
//  R6  Galantuomo,  allowing  nobody  to  ignore  this 
honor  done  to  his  house,  and  even  sporting  a  huge 
breastpin — a  miniature  of  her  royal  lover,  encircled 
with  diamonds  of  the  finest  water — which  he  was  never 
tired  of  negligently  pointing  out  as  "  his  late  Majesty's 
last  gift  to  my  dear  wife." 

A  mari  complaisant  is  never  a  very  admirable  individ- 

96 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ual,  but  the  brazenness  of  that  one  truly  surpassed  any- 
thing ever  heard  of.  Nevertheless  he  had  been  warmly 
recommended  to  Fred  by  no  less  a  personage  than  the 
Khedive  himself,  who,  through  the  agency  of  Mahmoud 
Bey,  had  rather  pointedly  urged  him  to  take  him  in 
his  employ,  and  unless  he  could  be  caught  in  flagrante 
delicto  tampering  with  state  secrets,  any  interference  or 
advice  on  my  part  would  be  more  or  less  useless.  The 
worst  of  it  all  was  that  I  suspected  that  Turko-Italian 
scamp  of  being  in  league  with  Mahmoud,  whose  tene- 
brous doings  were  beginning  to  cause  me  serious  anx- 
iety. It  was  naturally  of  paramount  importance  that 
our  cipher  code  should  remain  inviolate,  although  this 
is  of  a  truth  always  a  difficult  achievement,  for  almost 
every  code  is  an  open  book  to  the  governments  inter- 
ested in  knowing  the  contents  of  cipher  despatches 
concerning  them.  Clever  cryptographers  are  employed 
by  every  Foreign  Office,  and  it  is  wellnigh  hopeless  to 
invent  a  means  of  communication  over  the  wires  which 
will  not  be  interpreted  at  some  time  or  other.  Ours 
was  a  remarkably  complicated  mixture  of  numerals 
and  words,  and  the  key-words  thereto  were  invariably 
difficult  ones  to  guess.  Indeed,  it  would  be  impossible 
to  conceive  a  more  tiresome  and  head-splitting  piece  of 
work  than  either  to  cipher  or  decipher  a  despatch  of 
some  fifteen  hundred  or  two  thousand  words — nothing 
short  of  a  veritable  Chinese  puzzle,  and  one  which  sad 
and  wearisome  experience  had  taught  me  to  look  for- 
ward to  with  the  utmost  dread. 

Gradually,  however,  the  drowsy  murmur  of  the  foun- 
tain and  the  soft,  purring  rustle  made  by  the  whir- 
ring little  wings  of  countless  humming-birds  chasing 
each  other  round  and  round  the  patio  had  their  cus- 
tomary effect,  and  I  fell  into  a  deep  and  dreamless  sleep, 
from  which  I  was  aroused  at  four  o'clock  by  Sahla, 
7  97 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

the  soft  of  foot,  who,  according  to  orders  as  immutable 
as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  came  to  an- 
nounce to  me  that  my  bath  was  ready  and  the  horses 
waiting  my  pleasure. 

Forty  minutes  later  I  was  cantering  easily  and  pleas- 
antly on  the  road  to  Rhoda,  through  the  narrow  alleys 
of  old  Cairo,  followed  by  my  Austrian  groom  and  pre- 
ceded by  two  azure-and-silver  corseletted  saises,  who 
used  their  rods  of  office  vigorously  in  order  to  force  a 
way  for  the  horses  through  the  swarming  crowds  of 
natives  filling  every  thoroughfare.  Crossing  the  Kha- 
leeg  Canal — connecting  the  Nile  to  the  Red  Sea,  and 
said  to  have  been  projected  by  Amru,  the  leader  of  the 
first  Moslem  invaders — a  short  ride  brought  me  to  the 
banks  of  the  river  opposite  the  classic  isle,  which  has 
been  the  location  of  the  Nilometer  since  the  Arabs  re- 
moved it  from  its  primeval  site  at  Memphis.  The  Ni- 
lometer always  had  a  fascination  for  me  for  its  antique 
associations  and  the  great  and  mysterious  sanctity 
with  which  it  is  endowed.  According  to  a  very  ancient 
custom,  the  fellaheen  are  to  this  day  forbidden  to  look 
at  the  column  while  the  great  river  is  rising,  and  the 
reason  for  this  is  to  be  sought  not  in  superstition,  but 
in  politics,  for  taxes  are  imposed  according  to  the 
height  of  the  rise,  and  the  wily  Sheyk  ul  Islam — who 
is  under  the  direction  of  the  Cairene  police,  and  serves 
the  Khedive  as  the  Egyptian  hierarchy  of  old  did  the 
Pharaohs — is  thereby  enabled  to  publish  his  official 
statements  of  the  flood  from  his  private  Nilometer, 
which  has  a  depressed  zero-point.  And  by  this  "  pious  " 
fraud  he  manages  to  secure,  under  any  circumstances, 
his  full  amount  of  taxes.  This  piece  of  sharp  practice 
was  brought  to  light  by  the  engineers  of  the  first  French 
expedition  and  aroused  much  virtuous  indignation; 
but,  alas!  alack!  even  such  a  burst  of  righteous  feeling 

98 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

did  not  prevent  matters  from  remaining  exactly  as 
they  were  before  the  cat  had  been  let  out  of  the  bag. 

On  the  afternoon  I  am  here  recording  I  was  par- 
ticularly struck  with  the  aspect  of  the  fair  island,  the 
pointed  green  oval  of  which  lies  nestled  on  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  Nile  like  an  oleander  leaf,  its  diadem  of 
svelte  palms  darkly  and  delicately  pencilled  against  a 
sky  which  seemed  made  of  burnished  gold,  faintly  tinted 
with  palest  pink.  Nothing  could  be  more  poetic  than 
the  view  which  met  my  eye,  and  I  entered  into  the  spirit 
of  the  Orient,  emanating  from  every  nook  of  this  priv- 
ileged spot,  to  the  extent  of  making  a  devour  in  order  to 
cast  a  rapid  glance  at  the  sacred  and  immemorial  Man- 
doorah  tree,  called  by  the  Arabs  Hakeem  -  Kebir,  and 
which  is  endowed,  according  to  them,  with  wonderful — 
nay,  with  absolutely  miraculous  curative  powers.  A 
strange  object  and  a  weird,  with  its  ungainly  branches 
loaded  with  ex-votos  in  the  shape  of  many-colored 
rags,  strings  of  beads,  crutches,  staffs,  and  a  multitude 
of  other  incongruous  offerings  of  grateful  hearts. 

This  extraordinary  tree,  supposed  to  have  been 
planted  in  days  of  long  ago  by  the  fair  hands  of  the 
Prophet's  own  daughter  Fatima,  looked  grimmer  and 
gaunter  than  ever  on  that  occasion,  and  seemed  in  sorer 
need  than  heretofore  of  a  tear  or  so  from  the  merciful 
eye  of  the  Divinity,  who,  according  to  legend,  devotes 
two  in  every  year  to  the  land  of  Egypt,  one  causing  the 
rise  of  the  Nile  and  the  other  the  enduring  vitality  of 
the  Mandoorah  tree.  As  I  turned  my  horse  away  from 
this  sacred  spot,  two  immense  flamingoes  flew  with 
discordant  screeches  from  the  summit  of  Hakeem-Kebir 
— where,  peradventure,  they  too  had  been  depositing 
some  fitting  ex-voto — and  with  a  noisy  spanning  of 
their  rose-colored  wings  preceded  me,  like  a  couple  of 
volunteer  saises  wonderfully  garbed  and  gifted,  up 

99 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  avenue  leading  to  the  ponderous  gates  of  the  Duke's 
enchanting  domain. 

Whatever  eccentricities  might  be  laid  at  the  old  noble- 
man's door,  yet  one  could  not  refrain  from  reverencing 
this  stanch  Legitimist,  who,  intensely  disgusted  by 
the  accession  to  the  throne  of  France,  first  of  the  Roi 
Bourgeois,  and  then  of  that  dire  adventurer,  the  Third 
Napoleon,  shook  the  dust  from  his  sandals  upon  de- 
mocratized Paris,  and,  taking  with  him  all  his  portable 
goods,  buried  himself  in  this  lonely  corner  of  Egypt, 
where  he  founded  a  faithful  replica  en  miniature  of 
old,  aristocratic  France,  and  where  he  remained  until 
the  day  of  his  death. 

The  white-robed  and  turbaned  boab  having  thrown 
the  forbidding  portals  wide,  I  slackened  my  pace,  and, 
allowing  the  reins  to  droop  on  Fidelio's  glossy  neck,  I 
drank  in  the  splendor  of  the  fairy-like  park  and  grounds 
which  I  was  traversing. 

A  row  of  magnificent  eucalypti  cast  a  deep-blue 
shadow  upon  broad  borders  of  glowing  geraniums  and 
lorded  it  over  fantastic  gardens,  murmuring  fountains, 
lawns  intersected  by  walls  of  blossoming  shrubs,  groves 
of  camellias  and  azaleas,  and  delicious  groups  of  bam- 
boos, the  lanceolated  foliage  of  which  shivered  in  the 
light  breeze  rising  from  the  river,  like  supple  ribbons  of 
brilliant  metallic  green.  This  miniature  Vale  of  Cash- 
mere merged  into  a  broad,  level  space  of  sward,  in  the 
midst  of  which  stood  a  palace  of  semi-Moorish,  semi- 
European  architecture,  most  picturesquely  terraced 
and  balustraded,  both  walls  and  balconies  being  as 
delicately  wrought  and  fretted  as  a  piece  of  priceless 
lace.  Behind  it  the  exquisite  gardens  ran  riot  again; 
the  green  carpet,  so  soft  and  refreshing  to  the  eye,  was 
invaded  by  clumps  of  luxuriant  banana-trees,  broad- 
leaved  and  eccentric  of  growth,  above  which,  here  and 

100 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

there,  a  tall  dura  palm  stood  sentinel.  Farther  on  the 
bananas  ceased,  and  were  replaced  by  thickets  of  red- 
berried  pepper-trees  laden  with  clinging  blue,  white, 
and  purple  passiftora,  while  some  gigantic  cedars  filled 
the  air  with  a  clean,  resinous  odor,  delightful  to  inhale 
as  a  wholesome  change  from  the  cloying  fragrance  for 
which  a  distant  orange-orchard  was  responsible.  To 
the  left  of  that  dream-palace  the  rose-garden  exhibited 
specimens  of  every  known  variety  against  a  back- 
ground of  almond-trees  in  full  bloom,  and  to  the  right 
a  glorious  hedge  of  that  extravagant  shrub  which 
bears  no  leaves,  but  quantities  of  intense,  blinding 
red  blossoms  of  a  ragged,  revolutionary  aspect,  which 
the  Mexicans  call  La  Flor  de  la  Noche  Buena,  caught 
the  slanting  rays  of  the  sun  in  an  absolutely  discon- 
certing orgy  of  color.  Really,  no  pen  can  portray,  no 
brush  ever  hope  to  reproduce,  the  effect  of  the  almost 
incongruous  profusion  of  flowers  casting  their  intox- 
icating perfumes  under  the  interlacing  branches  form- 
ing a  natural  trellised  roof  overhead.  Pink  and  white 
myrtles,  golden-hued  jonquils,  rainbow-tinted  chrys- 
anthemums, white,  pink,  and  purple  rhododendrons, 
tawny,  velvet-leaved  gilly  -  flowers,  proud  irises,  lilac, 
white,  and  also  straw  -  colored,  magnolias,  gardenias 
gladioli,  lilies,  reseda,  heliotrope,  and  what  not  else,  all 
perfect  of  their  kind,  throve  as  nowhere  else  in  that 
crystalline  atmosphere  which  precedes  the  pitiless 
Egyptian  summer. 

As  I  approached  the  marble  terrace,  the  Duke  himself 
came  out  of  one  of  the  porte-fenetres  and  descended  the 
steps,  which  were  laden  on  each  side  with  rare  orchids, 
raising  their  glowing  petals  with  tropical  gorgeousness 
from  square  vases  of  verdigris  bronze. 

My  advancing  host  was  then  a  man  well  over  sev- 
enty, with  delicately  chiselled  features,  which  told 

101 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

their  tale  of  high  breeding  and  ancient  lineage ;  and — 
despite  an  exceeding  corpulence — a  lingering  ease,  a 
remarkable  grace  of  movement,  while  his  punctilious 
courtesy  and  haute  allure,  unimpeachable  and  abso- 
lute, stamped  him  at  once  for  an  aristocrat  of  the  old 
regime.  This  septuagenarian  grand  seigneur — once  a 
page  of  Louis  XVIII.,  and  who,  during  the  first  quar- 
ter of  the  nineteenth  century,  had  been  a  celebrated 
beau — was  the  inventor  of  the  now  universally  adopted 
gala-equipage  called  after  him,  Attelage  a  quatre  a  la 
d'A  .  .  .  .  t,  with  outriders,  postilions,  vacant  draped 
box,  and  footmen  in  the  rumble;  and  had  taken  pride 
in  surrounding  himself  in  this  terre  d'exil  with  the 
spirit  and  the  very  atmosphere  of  la  vieille  France.  All 
his  servants  were  old  family  retainers,  hoary-headed 
like  himself,  and,  like  himself,  imbued  with  ancient 
traditions  and  ancient  decorum.  During  the  reign  of 
Ismail  he  had  shown  much  state,  and  kept  open  house, 
delighting  in  assembling  around  his  hospitable  board — 
which  groaned  under  the  weight  of  magnificent  antique 
silver  and  gold  plate,  wonderful  Sevres  and  Saxe  porce- 
lains, and  wellnigh  unique  cut-glass — the  great  per- 
sonages who  congregated  from  all  corners  of  the  globe 
during  the  balmy  Cairene  winters;  but  after  the  depo- 
sition of  his  old  friend  and  the  advent  of  Tewfik,  whom 
he  greatly  disliked,  Monsieur  d'A  ....  t  ceased  to  re- 
ceive any  save  a  very  few  valued  friends,  and  lived 
in  utter  solitude  together  with  his  secretary  and  facto- 
tum. The  latter,  a  young  Frenchman,  after  his  patron's 
death  swore  that  the  Duke  had  adopted  him,  and  pro- 
duced a  will  naming  him  sole  executor  and  heir  to  the 
vast  wealth  of  this  last  scion  of  a  glorious  race. 

His  greeting  to  me  was  so  genuinely  one  of  affection- 
ate welcome  that  I  could  not  doubt  the  sincerity  of  his 
pleasure  at  seeing  me,  and  felt  much  gratified,  for  the 

102 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

old  nobleman  was  not  a  suiveur  de  foules,  and  his  es- 
teem and  respect  were  neither  easily  gained  nor  by  any 
means  granted  to  all  comers.  After  lingering  for  a 
few  moments  on  the  terrace  we  entered  a  large  salon 
opening  on  the  gardens,  a  salon  hung  with  admirable 
Gobelin  tapestries,  the  chairs  and  couches  each  a  mar- 
vel of  petit  point  embroidery,  the  ceiling,  around  which 
a  carved  cedar-wood  cornice  ran,  painted  in  tempera 
with  the  history  of  Ulysses,  and  along  the  walls  many 
cabinets  and  consoles  of  astoundingly  delicate  work- 
manship, preciously  inlaid  with  brass  and  silver,  while 
the  window-curtains  were  of  the  heaviest  and  richest 
brocades,  and  scrupulously  matched  the  various  hues 
of  the  tapestries. 

"This  is  exquisite!"  I  murmured,  letting  my  eyes 
wander  towards  the  enfilade  of  other  salons  opening  one 
into  the  other  by  lofty  archways,  above  which  gleam- 
ed the  Duke's  armorial  bearings — Louis  XIV.,  Louis 
XV.,  Louis  XVI.  rooms  hung  with  pale  satins,  ceiled 
with  cedar,  and  breathing  the  charm  of  the  epochs 
which  had  begotten  their  loveliness.  I  moved  to  one 
of  the  great  windows  and  looked  out  upon  the  gardens. 
The  chastened,  late  afternoon  light  spread  over  the 
parterres,  touching  the  verdure  of  the  trees  with  warm 
gold,  and  filling  the  gorgeous  chambers  with  a  rich 
and  sombre  splendor. 

"You  make  a  beautiful  picture  with  this  red-cedar 
panel  behind  you,  and  the  light  of  the  sunset  upon 
your  tawny  hair,  my  child,"  said  the  Duke.  "It  is 
only  a  young  face  that  can  afford  such  an  illumina- 
tion," he  added,  with  scarcely  veiled  regret.  "Ah, 
believe  me,  youth  is  the  greatest  of  all  boons,  and  the 
soonest  lost — so  enjoy  yours  while  you  can,  dum  cani- 
ties  abest.  The  frosts  of  age  are  hard  to  bear — harder, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  ill." 

103 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

The  bitterness  of  his  tone  touched  me.  Poor,  lonely 
old  man,  in  spite  of  his  immense  wealth,  of  his  splen- 
did surroundings,  of  his  remarkable  intellect,  he  was 
tasting  to  the  dregs  the  disappointment  of  a  loveless, 
lonely  life.  Could  anything  be  sadder  or  more  pathetic? 

At  that  moment  the  servants  brought  in  a  tea-equi- 
page of  solid  gold,  the  precious  metal  being  the  least 
costly  thing  about  it,  so  superb  were  the  chiselling  and 
design  of  this  piece  de  musee,  some  tiny  Sevres  cups  of 
Rose-Dubarry  pate  tendre,  and  some  rock-crystal  bowls 
filled  with  cakes  and  fruit. 

"Really,  you  have  a  great  deal  of  the  Haroun-al- 
Raschid  about  you,  my  dear,  good  friend,"  I  said,  ap- 
preciatively. "  How  do  you  keep  your  servants  at  this 
point  of  perfection?" 

"Oh,  my  servants  should  be  used  to  my  ways  by 
this  time ;  the  youngest  of  them  has  been  forty  years  in 
my  service.  Surely  their  apprenticeship  is  completed. 
Moreover,  although  you  may  think  it  strange,  they 
love  me,  poor  souls,  with  a  deep  and  reverential  love 
which  I  am  far  from  deserving." 

"Don't  say  that,"  I  replied,  earnestly.  "You  are 
extremely  lovable,  and,  moreover,  that's  fishing  for 
compliments,  mon  ami." 

"  How  I  wish  I  were  half  a  century  younger,  so  as 
to  listen  worthily  to  such  a  gratifying  speech,"  he 
retorted,  laughing.  "My  years  and  my  rheumatism 
alone  prevent  me  from  throwing  myself  at  your  feet 
this  very  minute." 

I  handed  him  his  cup  of  tea,  and,  helping  myself  to 
fruit,  sat  down  on  a  low  ottoman  by  an  open  win- 
dow. 

"This  repast,"  I  remarked,  "is  worthy  of  Titania, 
and  almost  could  it  be  classed  with  the  enviable  diet  of 
F6nelon's  islanders,  fed  only  by  breathing  sweet  odors. 

104 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  have  always  wished  that  our  own  menus  could  be 
modelled  more  on  the  same  pattern." 

"My  poor,  dear  child/'  quoth  the  Duke,  "knowing 
your  tastes  to  be  what  they  are,  I  am  often  puzzled  to 
understand  how  you  can  endure  any  part  of  the  life 
you  are  leading  amid  the  foul  ooze  of  political  intrigue 
which  ensnares  you  here  in  Egypt." 

"Oh,  if  you  want  to  know  the  truth,  I  am  heartily 
tired  of  it,  but  having  once  set  my  shoulder  to  the  wheel, 
there  is  a  kind  of  point  d'honneur  in  persevering,  or 
in  at  least  trying  to  help  get  the  cart  out  of  the  rut." 

"Even  you  will  never  accomplish  that.  I  fear  it  is 
an  impossible  feat  while  Tewfik  remains  the  figure- 
head of  this  organization ;  his  soul  is  as  sick  as  his  body 
— for,  believe  me,  in  spite  of  his  healthy  appearance 
he  is  a  doomed  man;  and,  moreover,  his  ways  are  not 
your  ways;  his  civilization  is  blent  with  barbarism, 
and,  alas — to  say  the  best  of  him — he  is  but  an  inju- 
dicious ruler  over  the  country  which  an  unwise  Provi- 
dence has  confided  to  his  care.  //  veut  menager  la 
chdvre  et  le  choux,  which  is  always  a  great  folly." 

"Dear  me!"  I  exclaimed,  "you  do  not  take  a  very 
cheerful  view  of  the  situation;  gentle  of  manner  and 
chary  of  speech  as  you  are,  you  can,  on  provocation, 
pronounce  a  sentence  suggestive  of  the  surgeon's 
knife." 

"Your  pardon,  madame;  in  general,  I  am  indulgent 
to  follies  which  I  do  not  share,  for  I  live  apart  from  the 
world,  in  which  I  once  was,  perad venture,  a  not  alto- 
gether inconspicuous  figure,  and  therefore  I  can  af- 
ford to  judge  it  with  good  nature  if  not  with  sympathy; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  things  before  which 
even  the  stoutest  optimism  is  powerless.  The  present 
situation  of  this  unhappy  country  is  among  them. 
Moreover,  it  makes  me  sick  to  see  you  mixed  up  in 

105 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

all  this — you,  a  child  of  the  antique  French  patrician 
type,  perhaps  the  highest  and  noblest  mould  of  hu- 
manity that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  the  most  capable 
of  true  distinction,  of  loyalty,  and  of  heroism.  I  shud- 
der when  I  think  of  you,  busying  your  delicate  fingers 
with  the  tangled  web  of  such  tenebrous  affairs." 

Seized  by  a  sudden  impulse,  I  told  him  of  the  Collier 
de  la  Favorite  incident.  He  listened  throughout  with 
an  inscrutable  face,  and  even  after  I  ceased  speaking 
remained  mute,  as  if  absorbed  in  deep  thought.  At 
last  he  turned  his  eyes — which,  to  use  a  popular  simile, 
had  been  "  looking  inward  " — full  upon  me,  with  greater 
gravity  than  I  should  have  thought  even  that  situation 
demanded,  and  said,  dryly : 

"  This  is  an  abominably  dirty  business.  You  do  not 
quite  realize  it  yet,  although  intuition  warned  you 
against  it ;  but  I  think  I  can  put  the  matter  in  a  different 
and  more  glaring  light  before  you,  for,  as  chance  will 
have  it,  your  story  explains  something  very  curious 
which  happened  to  me  a  few  days  ago." 

He  rose,  and,  asking  me  to  excuse  him  for  a  moment, 
left  the  room  by  a  little  side-door  concealed  behind  the 
tapestry,  and  which  communicated  with  his  private 
apartments,  leaving  me  in  a  state  of  mind  bordering 
on  mystification.  Was  he  a  wizard?  Else  how,  in 
the  name  of  all  past  and  present  wonders,  could  he 
explain  Mahmoud  Bey's  conduct  with  regard  to  that 
extraordinary  necklace.  To  speak  precisely,  I  really 
thought  for  a  second  that  the  good  old  Duke  was  hoax- 
ing me  with  a  view  of  giving  me  a  little  object-lesson. 

"  I  am  not  so  simple,  after  all,  as  he  seems  to  think," 
I  muttered,  impatiently;  "and,  sitting  as  I  do  in  the 
midst  of  a  maelstrom,  I  cannot  but  know  something 
about  the  laws  of  whirlpools."  My  eyes  wandered 
idly  at  the  aloe  and  euphorbia  grouped  beneath  the 

1 06 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

parapet  of  the  terrace,  and  I  thought,  "What  new 
endiablement  now?"  Then  I  shrugged  my  shoulders, 
lighted  a  cigarette,  and  waited  with  what  patience  I 
could  muster  for  the  reappearance  of  that  most  inter- 
esting and  puzzling  person,  my  friend  the  Ducal  Philos- 
opher. In  a  very  few  minutes  he  was  back,  carrying 
in  his  hand  a  little  lacquer  box,  which  he  carefully 
opened  and  handed  to  me. 

"What  do  you  think  of  those?"  he  said,  quietly,  but 
with  a  certain  suppressed  eagerness  which  made  me 
gaze  curiously  into  the  crimson  depths  of  the  costly 
Chinese  toy. 

"Superb!"  I  cried,  in  admiration,  for  on  a  bed  of 
jeweller's  cotton  were  ranged  some  of  the  handsomest 
rubies  and  emeralds  I  had  ever  seen. 

"  Yes,  they  are  almost  perfect  of  their  kind,"  he  mur- 
mured, bending  over  me  to  catch  the  sparkle  of  the 
big,  deep-hued  stones,  "and  worth  a  king's  ransom. 
Yet  I  bought  them  a  few  days  ago,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, for  a  song." 

"You  surprise  me,"  I  replied,  with  feeling,  "for,  if  I 
may  be  allowed  to  say  so,  I  am  a  bit  of  a  connoisseur 
in  such  matters,  and  I  should  say  that  each  of  them 
could  be  easily  valued  at  something  well  up  in  the 
thousands." 

"Quite  so;  but  still,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  con- 
sidered nothing  short  of  a  common  'fence/  my  lady,  I 
will  confide  to  you  privately  that  I  paid  for  the  entire 
lot  less  than  one  of  the  smallest  of  them  is  actually 
worth." 

I  stared  at  him  amazed,  striving  in  vain  to  guess  the 
meaning  of  the  sardonic  smile  which  played  upon  his 
withered  lips. 

In  the  rose-laurels  below  a  bird  was  calling  loudly 
to  its  mate,  reminding  the  truant  that  the  hour  for 

107 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

rest  was  nigh,  and  so  still  was  the  evening  that  the 
lapping  song  of  the  swiftly  rushing  river,  beyond  the 
scarlet  crest  of  the  Flor  de  la  Noche  Buena  hedge, 
was  plainly  audible  through  the  silkiness  of  the  reeds. 
Slowly  a  conviction  crept  upon  me  that  the  dazzling 
gems  which  I  held  in  the  hollow  of  my  hand  savored 
of  something  seen  before,  as  had  the  almost  uncanny 
fires  of  their  wicked  orbs  winked  at  me  with  the  famili- 
arity of  old  acquaintances. 

"  How  now,  Sir  Duke,"  I  said  at  last.  "  Do  you  think 
there  is  any  connection  between  these  and  those  I  spoke 
of  a  while  ago?" 

"  The  strongest  possible,"  he  replied,  grimly.  "  For 
I  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  they  are  the  self- 
same ones.  They  have  doubtless  been  replaced  by 
worthless  paste." 

I  stared  helplessly  from  the  open  box  to  the  Duke 
and  back  again,  while  he,  lighting  a  cigarette,  walked 
two  or  three  times  up  and  down  the  long  salon,  wait- 
ing, doubtless,  until  I  should  question  him  anew;  but 
somehow  I  strove  in  vain  to  conquer  the  blank  sense 
of  foolish  dread  which  had  suddenly  overtaken  me. 

"  Have  you  no  inquisitiveness?"  he  finally  exclaimed, 
stopping  and  scanning  me  with  his  calm  eyes,  strange- 
ly clear  and  luminous  for  so  aged  a  man. 

Shaking  off  the  vague  apprehensions  with  which 
his  words  had  inspired  me,  I  rose,  and,  placing  the  little 
box  and  its  precious  contents  on  a  table  near  by,  said, 
emphatically:  "Yes,  I  have,  and  I  entreat  you  to  tell 
me  how  these  rubies  and  emeralds  came  to  be  offered 
to  you  for  sale;  it  is  imperative  that  I  should  know  all 
about  it,  for  I  am  beginning  greatly  to  fear  that  but 
for  a  fortunate  accident  they  would  have  been  used  to 
discredit  my  poor  Fred — the  most  honest  and  loyal  of 
men!" 

108 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  That  is  exactly  what  I  myself  believe/'  he  replied, 
and  then,  after  a  moment's  hesitation,  he  rapidly  told 
me  how  a  merchant  from  the  bazaar,  aware  of  his 
fondness  for  collecting  rare  jewels,  had  waited  on  him 
at  dusk,  a  week  before,  and  offered  him  those  which 
now  blinked  and  sparkled  at  my  elbow.  Struck  by 
their  rare  purity,  lustre,  and  size,  the  Duke  expected 
that  a  very  large  price  should  be  asked  of  him,  and 
was  astounded  when  a  sum  was  mentioned  so  con- 
spicuously inferior  to  their  value  that  he  immediately 
scented  a  mysterious  and  unavowable  cause  for  such 
moderation.  "I  did  not  know  that  you  were  a  re- 
ceiver of  stolen  goods,"  he  said,  sternly,  pushing  away 
the  tempting  bargain  as  if  the  mere  touch  contam- 
inated him.  "Oh,  my  lord!  my  lord!"  the  Turk  made 
answer.  "  Indeed,  the  person  from  whom  I  bought  them 
is  of  too  lofty  a  rank  to  be  accused  of  committing  a  theft, 
but  I  am  afraid  of  the  stones,  and  will  not  keep  them 
for  fear  that  they  should  bring  disaster  upon  me  and 
mine.  Here  they  will  be  safely  hidden,  and  if  ypu 
will  only  take  them,  my  lord,  at  any  price,  I  will  be 
forever  grateful." 

Questions,  orders,  even  threats,  alike  failed  to  make 
the  evidently  sorely  frightened  man  say  more  than 
that,  or  reveal  the  name  of  his  illustrious  and  sus- 
picious customer ;  he  merely  assured  the  Duke  that  he 
would  willingly  have  refused  to  buy,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, but  that  he  had  been  absolutely  forced  to  do 
so,  and  concluded  by  declaring  that  in  case  the  Duke 
persisted  in  refusing  to  purchase  them  he  would  cast 
the  gems  with  his  own  hand  into  the  Nile  on  his  way 
home.  Thus  adjured,  my  old  friend  very  rightly  de- 
cided to  give  the  man  what  he  had  himself  paid  for 
them,  and  to  keep  them  in  his  custody  until  the  mys- 
tery enveloping  them  should  be  cleared  up.  This,  he 

109 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

thought,  could  scarcely  fail  to  happen  shortly,  such 
stones  being  far  too  rare  to  disappear  totally  without 
causing,  sooner  or  later,  some  comment. 

Overjoyed,  the  merchant  went  away  expressing  his 
gratitude  in  the  lavish  hyperbole  customary  to  his 
race,  after  entreating  the  Duke's  acceptance  of  a  won- 
derful damascened  dagger  of  Persian  workmanship 
with  a  cabochon  sapphire  of  great  beauty  set  in  the 
hilt. 

"  Here  it  is,"  said  M.  d'A .  .  .  .  t,  taking  from  the  top 
of  a  cabinet  a  murderous-looking  weapon  and  hand- 
ing it  to  me.  "  Abdullah-Sid-Ibrahim  stoutly  refused 
to  accept  any  money  for  it,  and  made  such  a  fuss  about 
my  taking  it  that  in  order  to  get  rid  of  him  I  was  fain 
to  yield.  Keep  it,"  he  added.  "I  think  you  should 
have  it  as  a  memento  of  your  strange  adventure,  for 
you  are  doubtless  now  convinced  that  the  high  and 
mighty  personage  who  sold  that  rascal  Ibrahim  yon- 
der gems  was  none  other  than  your  precious  friend 
Mahmoud." 

"There  can  hardly  be  two  opinions  on  the  sub- 
ject," I  said,  wrathfully,  my  fingers  gripping  the 
handle  of  the  dagger  with  unconscious  violence. 
"The  vile,  cowardly,  thieving  wretch!  But,  no  mat- 
ter ;  I  will  trap  him  yet,  and  make  him  regret  the  day 
when  he  attempted  to  make  a  cat's-paw  of  my  poor 
boy!" 

Every  fibre  of  my  being  was  thrilled  and  awake, 
every  nerve  of  my  mind  and  body  strung  to  its  utter- 
most, and  anger  such  as  I  had  rarely  felt  ran  hot 
through  my  veins. 

"  You  little  tigress,"  said  the  Duke,  laying  his  hand 
upon  my  shoulder.  ' '  In  doubt,  abstain ' ;  that  is  one  of 
the  golden  sayings  of  the  world's  wisdom.  'Act  in 
haste  and  repent  at  leisure'  is  another.  Listen:  I 

no 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

have  provided  you  with  the  means  of  undoing  Mah- 
moud,  if  need  arise;  but  do  not  move  save  in  self- 
defence,  for  it  would  be  both  dangerous  and  futile  to 
do  so." 

I  instantly  came  to  myself,  the  wise  words  of  this 
sagacious  friend  acting  as  a  beneficent  cold  douche 
upon  my  ridiculous  outburst  of  fury. 

"I  entreat  your  forgiveness,"  I  said,  penitently.  "I 
have  been  awfully  foolish  to  speak  as  I  did,  but  the 
meanness  of  the  trick  which  I  suspect  that  fellow  of  hav- 
ing attempted  to  play  on  Fred  was  almost  too  much  for 
me.  I  see  it  all  now.  I  suppose  that  he  left  the  collar 
purposely  behind  him  so  as  to  lay  the  fraud  at  my  hus- 
band's door  if  it  was  ever  discovered,  and  that  his  anx- 
iety and  dismay  were  merely  a  part  of  the  comedy  he 
played  for  my  benefit." 

"There  is  no  reason  whatsoever  why  he  should  not 
still  do  so,"  coolly  replied  the  Duke. 

"That  is  true,"  I  exclaimed.  "If  he  dare!  But  I 
may  possibly  put  a  spoke  or  two  in  his  wheels,"  I  con- 
cluded, regaining  my  self-control  in  the  face  of  pos- 
sible— nay,  probable — danger. 

Outside  the  birds  had  ceased  to  twitter,  the  short 
southern  twilight  was  gradually  fading  into  purple 
shadows,  and  a  galaxy  of  stars  was  budding  forth  in 
the  pale,  turquoise-tinted  sky,  while  under  the  trees, 
now  beginning  to  look  like  shapeless  masses  of  sil- 
vered shadow,  the  flowers  were  folding  their  petals  in 
fragrant  slumber. 

M.  d'A .  .  .  .  t  looked  at  me  with  a  penetrating 
glance  which  seemed  to  read  all  the  secrets  of  my 
soul,  and  said,  with  all  his  sweet,  suave  courtesy,  and 
in  his  very  gentlest  manner: 

"You  will,  I  am  certain,  be  more  than  equal  to  the 
task  of  holding  Mahmoud  in  check;  but  do  not  forget, 

in 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

whatever  happens,  that  I  was  your  father's  friend — and 
your  grandfather's,  too — and  that  I  would  consider  it 
both  an  honor  and  a  privilege  if  I  could  be  of  service 
to  you  in  this  matter  or  in  any  other." 

"Thank  you,"  I  murmured,  deeply  moved.  "You 
were  ever  kind  to  me,  and  you  may  rest  assured  that  I 
will  not  forget.  But  now  I  must  leave  you,  for  it  is 
late,  and  they  will  be  looking  for  me  at  home." 

"Cannot  you  dine  with  me?"  he  asked,  wistfully. 

"  I  fear  not,"  I  replied ;  "  but  if  you  will  let  me,  I  shall 
come  back  soon  and  spend  a  whole  day  in  this  paradise 
of  yours.  Ah,  my  dear  Duke,  how  fortunate  you  are 
to  have  left  behind  all  the  struggles  and  miseries  of 
youth  —  youth  which  you  call  a  boon,  but  which  to 
me  has  brought  as  yet  little  else  than  bitterness  and 
strife!" 

"Poor  child!"  he  said,  softly;  "poor,  little,  white- 
plumaged  bird,  made  to  keep  aloof  from  dust  and  mud ! 
You  think  the  woild  a  mere  mass  of  affectation,  hypoc- 
risies, timorous  shifts,  and  nauseating  squalor.  I 
know!  I  know!  But  you  are  one  of  those  born  to 
conquer,  my  dear,  who  can  resist,  can  keep  a  tight 
hold  upon  their  own,  and  to  whom  honor,  loyal ty, 
and  duty  are  not  empty  words.  You  have  chosen  a 
hard  road  to  travel ;  but  you,  with  the  blood  of  old  Cru- 
saders and  heroes  in  your  veins,  can  traverse  it  with- 
out soiling  your  feet  and  without  losing  heart." 

After  a  moment's  pause  he  continued :  "  Forgive  my 
prosiness,  and  set  it  down  to  the  natural  loquacity 
of  a  very  old  man — and — yes,  come  soon  again.  You 
will  show,  in  so  doing,  true  kindness  to  one  whose  life 
is  now  made  up  of  half  shades  and  of  hazy  sensations, 
and  whose  joys  are  few  and  far  between." 

With  a  little,  weary  sigh  he  turned  away  from  me 
to  ring  the  bell.  Moved  by  an  impulse,  quite  irresisti- 

112 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ble  in  its  sincerity,  I  took  his  wrinkled  hand  gently 
in  mine  and  reverently  touched  it  with  my  lips,  as 
if  he  had  been  the  grandfather  whom  his  words  had 
just  recalled  to  me.  Then,  without  a  word,  I  left 
him. 

As  I  rode  away  with  a  heavy  heart  and  a  very  anx- 
ious mind,  I  turned  in  my  saddle  to  look  at  the  vast 
moonlit  edifice  which  borrowed  from  this  chastened 
illumination  a  dignity  and  austerity  not  its  own  by 
daylight,  but,  remembering  the  Duke's  last  words,  I 
straightened  myself  instinctively,  and  with  a  grate- 
ful  thought  for  that  wise  and  kind  friend,  started  at  a 
swinging  gallop  down  the  flower-lined  avenue. 

"Our  generation  is  born  tired,"  I  mused.  "The 
preceding  ones  were  happier,  for  they  believed  in  the 
possibility  of  enjoyment;  an  illusion,  no  doubt,  but 
mightily  cheering,  at  any  rate,  and  one  which  helped 
them  to  accomplish  great  and  glorious  deeds,  where- 
as "  —  here  Fidelio  shied  violently  and  swerved  into  a 
magnificent  border  of  scarlet  sal  via  and  wax -belled 
stephanotis. 

"Soh,  boy — sohl  What's  amiss?"  I  said,  patting 
the  frightened  horse's  neck  and  extricating  him  from 
the  wrecked  plants. 

"Good-evening,"  interposed  a  mellifluous  voice,  and 
a  tall  figure  stepped  out  of  the  opposite  thicket  so  un- 
expectedly that  I  found  it  difficult  to  prevent  my  ner- 
vous hunter  from  bolting. 

"  Who  the  devil  are  you,  and  what  do  you  mean  by 
playing  such  pranks?"  I  cried,  irritably,  bending  for- 
ward to  peer  at  the  unwelcome  disturber  of  my  medita- 
tions. 

"I  entreat  your  ladyship's  pardon.  I  am  Mon- 
seigneur's  secretary." 

"  Oh,  that  you,  Xavier?    Well,  all  I  can  say  is  that  for 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

a  sportsman  of  your  pretensions  you  have  a  very  queer 
way  of  accosting  skittish  horses." 

My  patience  scarcely  endured  the  strain  upon  it,  for 
that  man  possessed  the  gift  of  exasperating  me.  He 
was  undoubtedly  a  very  shrewd  person — slender,  smil- 
ing, plausible,  and  serene,  gifted  by  fate  with  a  singu- 
larly keen  eye  as  an  offset  to  a  chronically  meagre 
purse,  and  it  was  another  trump  in  his  hand  that  he 
had  the  outward  appearance  of  a  gentleman,  and  could 
lie  like  one,  suavely,  inscrutably,  and  stolidly,  at  a 
moment's  notice. 

"I  beg  to  reiterate  my  apologies.  It  was  certainly 
very  rash  of  me  to  step  into  your  path  without  warning, 
but  to  an  equestrienne  of  your  exceptional  merit  scarce- 
ly anything  can  really  be  dangerous." 

"That's  easy  for  you  to  say,"  I  grumbled,  with  in- 
creasing ill-humor.  "And  how  is  it  that  you  are  on 
foot?"  I  added,  absent-mindedly.  "I  thought  you  had 
been  to  Cairo?" 

"  So  I  have,"  he  replied,  rubbing  his  hands  together 
softly.  "  I  spent  the  entire  afternoon  in  the  bazaar,  pric- 
ing embroideries,  ivories,  enamels,  cloisonne's,  and — 
ah,  yes!  jewels  for  Monseigneur's  collections,  and  I 
think  that  I  have  struck  a  fair  bargain  or  two." 

"You  always  do!"  I  retorted,  with  quite  unjustifi- 
able asperity,  and  was  about  to  pursue  my  road  with  a 
nod,  but  the  young  factotum  suddenly  bent  forward, 
and  to  my  intense  surprise  placed  his  hand  familiarly 
on  Fidelio's  neck. 

"  You  do  not  like  me,  my  lady,  and  yet  at  present, 
perchance,  I  could  serve  you  better  than  any  one  else, 
and  would  willingly  do  so  if  you  permitted  it,"  he 
murmured,  looking  up  in  my  face  with  his  glittering, 
steel-blue  eyes,  which  held  something  very  like  a  men- 
ace in  their  metallic  depths. 

"4 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"My  good  Xavier,"  I  said,  gazing  down  at  him  with 
considerable  contempt,  "I  sincerely  dislike  mysteri- 
ous statements  of  that  description.  If  you  have  aught 
of  importance  which  it  would  be  to  your  liking  or  in- 
terest to  communicate  to  me,  well  and  good ;  I  am  listen- 
ing. But  I  am  not  aware  of  having  ever  sought  your 
assistance  about  my  private  affairs  or  encouraged 
you  to  interest  yourself  in  them,  although  I  am,  of 
course,  gratified  by  your  evident  desire  to  do  so  un- 
asked." 

"My  lady,"  dryly  rejoined  this  strange  individual, 
"  to  you,  if  a  horse  be  sound,  he  is  sound ;  if  he  is  not 
sound,  he  is  not  worth  a  shot.  You  do  not  deign  to 
confuse  yourself  with  any  more  complex  questions 
than  this  one,  and  yet  a  horse  not  quite  sound  may 
possess  multiform  qualities." 

"  Not  in  my  opinion.  My  stable  doctrines  are  form- 
ed on  narrower  lines  than  yours.  Allow  me  to  prefer 
mine  and  to  wish  you  good-evening." 

He  drew  back  stiffly,  evidently  deeply  offended, 
bowed  low,  and  stood,  hat  in  hand,  watching  me  as  I 
lightly  touched  Fidelio  with  the  spur  and  set  off  at 
a  rapid  gait. 

"Ugh!"  I  said  to  myself,  wrathfully;  "you  are  the 
kind  of  being  who  would  kiss  a  leper's  ulcers  if  that 
leper  could  sign  a  check!"  And,  thoroughly  disgusted, 
I  turned  out  of  the  avenue  and  picked  my  way  along 
the  ill-kept,  dusty  road  leading  to  the  river. 

Night  had  already  fallen  as  I  rode  through  the 
streets  of  old  Cairo,  and  it  was  very  late  when  I  at  last 
reached  home.  There  I  found  a  message  left  by  Fred, 
to  the  effect  that  he  had  again  been  summoned  to  the 
palace,  and  would  probably  not  return  till  late. 

I  dressed  rapidly,  dined  with  equal  despatch,  and 
had  just  lighted  my  first  cigarette  and  begun  to 

"5 


A   DOFFED  CORONET 

sip    my   coffee    on   the   veranda   when    his    carriage 
drove  up. 

"Hello,  Pussy!"  he  called  out,  jumping  out  and  tak- 
ing his  portfolio  from  the  attending  kavass.  "You 
look  the  picture  of  comfort  and  placid  enjoyment/' 
Two  steps  at  a  time  he  ran  up  in  his  boyish  way  to 
where  I  sat,  and  threw  himself,  more  vigorously  than 
gracefully,  on  a  long  cane-chair. 

"I  have  to  go  to  Alexandria  to-morrow,  worse  luck!" 
he  said,  plaintively,  throwing  his  head  back  and  me- 
chanically grasping  the  long  glass,  tinkling  with  ice, 
which  Sahla  had  slipped  into  its  special  receptacle  in 
the  arm  of  the  chair  as  his  master  approached. 

"Hallo-e-e-e-e-e-Hallo-o-o-o!"  suddenly  sounded  from 
far  down  the  rhododendron  path,  the  discordant  syl- 
lables rolling  out  upon  the  clear  night  air  with  star- 
tling volume  and  distinctness. 

" '  Yankee  Doodle ' !"  I  whispered,  smothering  a  laugh, 
while  Fred,  on  hospitality  bent,  lustily  halloed  back, 
and  rose  to  receive  the  Chevalier  du  MSrite — as  I  had 
styled  him  ever  since  the  decoration  incident.  Merry 
and  prosperous-looking  as  ever  the  Judge  appeared,  a 
big  palm-leaf  fan  in  one  hand,  and  his  eternal  high 
silk  hat — which  looked  rather  incongruous  in  conjunc- 
tion with  his  evening-dress  —  in  the  other,  together 
with  a  horse-tail  fly -flicker,  which  he  waved  grace- 
fully to  and  fro.  He  lounged  against  a  pillar,  and 
said,  truculently: 

"  I  am  going  to  give  you  a  shock — a  bona-fide  corker 
of  a  shock." 

"My  dear  Judge,"  I  exclaimed,  "spare  me!  I  have 
had  already  two  distinct  shocks  to-day." 

"Three's  a  lucky  number,"  he  pronounced,  oracu- 
larly, "so  here  goes:  Your  cousin  Jerry  is  going  to 
Abyssinia  at  once!" 

116 


"  NIGHT  HAD   ALREADY  FALLEN   AS  I   RODE   THROUGH  THE 
STREETS  OF  OLD   CAIRO" 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

"Oh,  dear,  how  tiresome!  Are  you  sure  of  what 
you  say?  What  on  earth  can  possess  him  to  do  that?" 
I  asked,  greatly  annoyed,  for  Jerry  was  a  dear,  good, 
lovable  fellow,  who  would  be  missed,  indeed,  from  our 
little  circle. 

"Certain  sure;  and  you  should  be  glad,  too,  for  he 
is  going  to  win  new  distinctions,  this  lucky  and  most 
popular  of  young  diplomats.  I  envy  him  his  chance, 
being  myself  very  tired  of  playing  the  game  of  sit-down. 
Don't  look  so  lugubrious,  fair  lady,  he  is  coming  here 
presently,  and  although  your  present  expression  of 
profound  dejection  would  undoubtedly  be  flattering  to 
his  vanity,  yet  it  would  hardly  cheer  him  on  his  way." 

Jerry  —  or,  rather,  Gerald.  P  .  .  .  .  1  —  was  a  distant 
cousin  of  mine,  by  reason  of  his  being  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  Marquis  P ....  1  de  P r,  who 

emigrated  to  England  in  1794.  At  the  time  of  which 
I  am  writing  Jerry  was  occupying  the  post  of  secretary 
of  the  British  Legation,  where  he  was  greatly  appreci- 
ated. Within  a  few  months  of  joining  the  diplomatic 
service  the  lad  had  found  an  opportunity  of  distinguish- 
ing himself  at  Alexandria,  where,  as  an  attach^  of  the 
then  English  Envoy,  Sir  Edward  M  .  .  .  .  t,  during  the 
bombardment,  and  the  subsequent  Anglo-Egyptian  war, 
he  had  displayed  so  much  gallantry,  discretion,  and 
zeal  that  at  the  close  of  the  operations  he  had  received 
both  the  British  war-medal  and  the  khedivial  bronze 
star.  He  was  now  twenty-five  years  old,  athletic, 
stood  six  feet  two  in  his  stockings,  and  his  high-bred 
look,  irresistible  smile,  and  handsome,  slightly  aquiline 
features,  lighted  by  large,  almond-shaped  eyes  of  won- 
derful softness  and  lustre,  made  up  a  more  than  ordi- 
narily attractive  tout-ensemble. 

He  was  also  a  crack  polo-player,  and  captain  of  the 
'  generally  victorious  team  at  the  polo-grounds  of  Ghe- 

117 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

zireh,  a  fact  of  which  he  was  far  prouder  than  of  all 
his  diplomatic  laurels. 

When  a  few  short  years  later  he  died  miserably  of 
enteric  fever,  poor  fellow,  alone  in  his  tent  on  the  burn- 
ing bosom  of  the  wide  desert  where  duty  had  once 
again  called  him,  those  who  loved  him  realized  the  force 
of  the  line  which  says : 

"  Un  seul  &re  est  mort,  et  tout  est  depeuple." 

As  he  sauntered  up  that  night,  his  crimson  cum- 
merbund emphasizing  the  slenderness  of  his  waist  and 
the  unusual  breadth  of  his  shoulders  under  his  dress- 
coat,  he  looked  the  very  embodiment  of  healthy,  strong, 
young  manhood,  but  in  spite  of  the,  new  honors  con- 
ferred upon  him  he  did  not  give  one  the  impression  of 
being  particularly  happy. 

"Good-evening,  Jerry,"  Fred  called  out,  leaning 
over  the  balustrade.  "You  ever-conquering  hero, 
what  is  that  we  hear  about  Abyssinia?" 

He  hesitated,  looking  up  with  his  head  uncovered, 
the  moon  shining  fully  upon  him  as  he  stood  on  the 
gravel  path,  and  showing  the  frown  contracting  his 
straight,  dark  brows.  Then  he  laughed  a  short,  mirth- 
less laugh. 

"  I  see  that  our  good  Judge  has  told  you  about  my 
unexpected  little  trip,"  he  said,  slowly  ascending  the 
broad,  shallow  steps. 

"I  did  that  same,  dear  and  beloved  sir.  No  offence 
meant — and  none  taken,  I  trow?" 

Jerry  looked  at  him  vacantly  as  if  he  had  not  heard 
the  words,  and,  bending  over  my  hand  in  silence,  sat 
down  on  a  pile  of  cushions  at  my  feet. 

"You  do  not  wear  your  honors  joyfully,"  quoth  the 
incorrigible  Judge,  more  in  sorrow  than  in  reproach. 
"How  sober  you  look!" 

118 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  There  are  many  reasons  for  my  regretting  to  leave 
Cairo/'  he  replied,  calmly.  "The  polo  season  is  not 
finished,  to  begin  with;  and;  moreover,  my  first  trip 
to  Abyssinia  was  not  of  a  nature  to  make  a  repetition 
of  it  grateful.  The  journey  from  the  Red  Sea  coast 
to  the  camp  of  King  John  on  the  highlands  was  some- 
thing of  a  treat,  I  confess,  for  it  had  at  least  the  merit 
of  novelty ;  but  King  John  himself  is  not  a  personage 
to  whom  one  can  get  so  deeply  attached  as  to  make 
one  yearn  for  a  second  sight  of  him." 

"The  resource  and  presence  of  mind,  the  endurance 
and  splendid  courage  which  you  displayed,  should 
constitute  pleasant  memories,  at  least,"  I  said,  gently; 
"  but  it  is  really  too  bad  that  you  should  be  sent  there 
again  so  soon." 

He  did  not  answer,  but  his  eyes  dwelt  on  me  for  a 
moment  wistfully  and  sadly,  all  the  merrinessiso  cus- 
tomary to  him  gone  for  the  time  being. 

At  that  juncture  Fred  and  the  Judge  retired  to  the 
billiard-room,  whence  soon  the  click  of  the  ivory  balls 
faintly  reached  us.  Jerry  rose  abruptly.  He  looked 
very  pale,  and  nervously  gnawed  his  small  mustache. 

"  I  am  glad  that  Fred  relieved  us  of  that  old  donkey's 
presence,"  he  said,  viciously,  and  with  so  complete  a  de- 
parture from  his  usual  nonchalant,  good-natured  man- 
ner of  speech  that  I  looked  up  at  him  with  extreme  sur- 
prise. The  expression  on  his  face  yet  further  astonished 
me,  and  I  hesitated  to  say  what  rose  to  my  lips.  He 
had  spoken  under  his  breath,  leaning  back  against 
the  wall  of  the  house;  his  eyes  were  cold  and  almost 
stern,  but  I  noticed  that  his  lips  trembled  ever  so  slight- 
ly. I  glanced  up  at  him  again  under  my  lashes,  and  a 
dawning  comprehension  of  what  was  going  on  in  his 
soul,  and  of  his  impatience  at  the  momentary  weakness 
thrilling  through  his  nerves,  made  it  quite  impossible 

119 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

for  me  to  speak.  There  was,  however,  a  self-restraint 
in  his  whole  attitude  which  commanded  my  respect, 
and  I  sat  quietly  awaiting  his  next  words.  At  last  he 
broke  a  silence  which  was  becoming,  to  say  the  least,  a 
little  awkward. 

"  I  am  starting  to-morrow  morning,"  he  said,  brusque- 
ly. "  Wounded  brutes  always  get  away  somewhere  to 
be  unseen,  and  that  is  why  I  am,  after  all,  glad  to 

His  tone  was  low,  but  absolutely  calm  and  even.  I 
made  a  little  gesture  of  deprecation,  and  gazed  intently 
at  the  tendrils  of  the  Madeira  vine  swinging  lightly  in 
the  night  breeze  from  the  top  of  the  glass  marquise 
above  us,  like  the  silver  cordage  of  some  fairy  ship. 

"I  am  afraid  that  it  is  selfish  of  me  to  say  that,"  he 
pursued,  "  for  I  am  leaving  you  in  a  difficult,  perhaps 
a  dangerous,  situation.  I  fully  realize  that  I  am  not 
needed  to  swell  the  number  of  your  courtiers,  but  I 
had  hoped  to  be  of  use  to  you  at  a  moment  of  peril. 
However,  the  choice  is  not  in  my  hands.  I  may  add 
that  this  sudden  departure  costs  me  more  than  you 
may  think." 

He  paused  a  moment,  breathing  rapidly,  and  grasped 
the  back  of  my  chair  with  his  strong,  sun -burned 
hands. 

"  Listen,  Muzzi.  I  wish  you  would  promise  me  to  be 
prudent,  at  least.  You  are  reckless,  and  plucky  to  the 
verge  of  folly,  and  you  do  not  seem  to  realize  that  the 
present  state  of  affairs  is  not  at  all  reassuring.  You 
know  me  too  well  to  imagine  that  I  am  trying  to  alarm 
you  without  due  reason.  Indeed,  I  am  very  much  in 
earnest,  for  I  see  how  slender  are  your  chances  of  thread- 
ing without  hurt  the  unusually  intricate  maze  of 
intrigue  and  treachery  which  surrounds  Tewfik  at 
present." 

120 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

With  a  sudden  change  of  attitude  and  manner  he 
dropped  on  one  knee  beside  me,  and,  taking  my  hand 
in  both  of  his,  said,  imploringly: 

"  Promise  me  that  you  will  have  a  care  how  you  rush 
into  danger. "  All  his  enforced  composure  was  gone, 
and  his  heart  beat  so  loudly  that  it  was  positively 
audible  in  the  stillness  around  us.  Softly  I  passed  my 
disengaged  hand  over  his  short-cropped  curls,  murmur- 
ing, soothingly: 

"  I  will  promise,  certainly ;  but  you  must  do  the  same, 
my  dear,  for  you  are  far  more  reckless  than  I  am  my- 
self. You  will  be  careful,  too;  won't  you,  dear  old 
boy?" 

"  I  will,  of  course,  if  you  like,  but  it  matters  so  little 
about  me/'  he  replied,  wearily. 

"It  matters  a  great  deal,"  I  exclaimed,  indignantly. 
"  You  should  not  say  such  things,  Jerry." 

He  lifted  his  head,  and  for  a  second  an  expression  of 
doubt  flitted  over  his  countenance;  then  he  rose  and 
stood  irresolutely  before  me,  as  if  puzzled  what  to  do 
next. 

"I  will  go  now,"  he  said  at  last.  "Bid  Fred  good- 
night for  me.  No  doubt  he  will  be  at  the  station  to  see 
me  off  to-morrow,  he  is  always  so  kind.  But  don't 
you  come.  I  do  not  think  that  I  could  quite  bear  it." 

He  straightened  himself,  squaring  his  shoulders 
mechanically  like  a  soldier  on  parade,  and  I,  too,  arose, 
with  a  strange  sensation  of  expectancy  and  dread,  fully 
realizing  that  on  those  few  last  minutes  and  words 
depended  the  possibility  of  our  continuing  to  be  in 
the  future  the  same  good  friends  and  comrades  we 
had  been  heretofore.  Involuntarily  I  clasped  my 
hands  together  until  the  rings  cut  into  the  flesh,  the 
slight  pain  acting  as  a  beneficent  tonic  to  my  aching 
nerves.  Light  clouds  were  passing  over  the  face  of 

121 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  moon,  and,  fortunately,  it  was  almost  dark  where 
we  stood.  In  the  distance  the  monotonous  sound  of  a 
taraboucka  pulsated  like  faint,  derisive  laughter. 

Suddenly  he  drew  me  towards  him,  kissed  me  hur- 
riedly, and  with  a  half  articulate,  "God  bless  you!" 
was  gone. 

I  remained  quite  motionless  until  the  echo  of  his 
footsteps  had  entirely  died  away ;  then  I  once  more  sat 
down  among  the  cushions  and  allowed  my  thoughts 
to  drift  aimlessly  where  idle  thoughts  drift  to. 

When  Fred  and  his  guest  joined  me,  an  hour  or  so 
later,  I  started  up  in  surprise,  for  I  had  wellnigh  lost  all 
notion  of  where  I  was. 

"What  has  become  of  Jerry?"  cried  my  lord.  " Has 
he  left  you  all  alone?' 

"Yes,"  I  retorted;  "he  asked  me  to  bid  you  good- 
night for  him." 

"He  is  a  strange  fellow,"  said  the  Judge,  specula- 
tively.  "Now  I  would  have  thought  that  this  emi- 
nently poetical,  flower-laden,  moonlit  spot,  and  such 
company  especially,  would  be  enough  to  mobilize  every 
youngster  in  Cairo." 

"  Yes,  he  is  a  strange  fellow,"  I  echoed,  involuntarily. 
"He  is  so  very  honorable,  you  seel" 

Fred's  dark  eyes  were  turned  towards  me,  and  I  read 
plainly  in  them,  "  I'm  sorry  the  old  chap  is  so  tiresome 
to-night,  but  I  can't  help  it." 

"  Why  did  you  send  him  away?  Tell  us  that,  dear- 
est lady.  Was  he  fresh?"  pursued  "Yankee  Doodle." 

I  shrugged  my  shoulders  impatiently.  Never  had 
the  poor  Judge  so  put  his  foot  in  it. 

"  I  did  not  send  him  away — he  went ;  and  really,  my 
dear  Judge,  you  speak  as  if  he  were  a  counter-jumper 
on  a  night's  outing." 

He  looked  at  me  good-humoredly,  with  a  little,  dubi- 

122 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ous  smile,  and  was  about  to  make  some  further  remark 
when  Fred  forestalled  him  by  asking  if  he  had  ever 
heard  how  the  Abyssinian  King  had  presented  to  Jerry, 
on  his  arrival  at  the  royal  camp,  a  superb  robe  of  honor 
made  out  of  some  choice  material  which  Jerry  himself 
had  brought  to  Abyssinia  among  the  gifts  of  the  Brit- 
ish government  to  the  King,  and  which  had  been  stolen 
from  the  baggage  of  the  special  embassy  on  its  way 
up  country  by  some  of  his  dusky  Majesty's  retain- 
ers. This  tickled  the  risible  muscles  of  our  genial 
friend  so  exquisitely  that  he  proceeded  to  arouse  all 
the  discordant  echoes  that  be  with  his  uproarious  laugh- 
ter, but  fortunately  this  outburst  formed  the  grand 
finale  of  his  visit  —  or,  rather,  "visitation" — and  he 
almost  immediately  departed,  for  which  dispensation 
of  Providence  I  was  proportionately  thankful. 

When  Fred  came  back  from  taking  him  to  the  garden 
gate  he  gently  put  his  arm  about  me. 

"My  poor  little  girl!"  he  said. 

On  the  following  afternoon  Fred  left  for  Alexandria 
on  the  Khedive's  business,  and  at  eight  o'clock  in  the 
evening  I  drove  to  the  Russian  Legation,  where  there 
were  "a  few  people"  to  dinner — viz.,  half  a  hundred 
distinguished  personages  crowded  into  a  dining-room 
which  could  conveniently  hold  twenty.  The  func- 
tion was  a  semi-official  one  in  honor  of  some  royalties 
travelling  incognito,  else  I  should  have  sent  excuses, 
feeling  neither  very  well  nor  very  happj'' ;  but,  as  it  was, 
I  had  to  submit  to  partial  suffocation  and  to  infinite 
boredom  with  as  good  a  grace  as  I  could  summon  to 
my  assistance,  all  the  more  so  as  His  Excellency  Mr. 

H o,  being  a  widower,  and  none  of  the  secretaries 

married,  I  had  been  asked  to  do  the  honors — a  circum- 
stance which  by  no  means  increased  my  pleasurable 
interest  in  the  occurrences  of  the  evening. 

123 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

As  I  approached,  the  unshuttered  windows  of  the 
house  were  glistening  with  light,  filtered  through  thick- 
ets of  pomegranate  and  myrtle,  and  shining  on  the 
marble  perron  carpeted  with  crimson  and  screened  by 
pink-and-white  striped  awnings.  In  another  moment 

H o  was  welcoming  me  with  the  genuine  pleasure 

which  a  lonely  bachelor  naturally  feels  at  shifting  his 
responsibilities  upon  experienced  feminine  shoulders 
upon  an  occasion  of  some  social  interest  and  public 
importance.  I  hastily  glanced  at  the  dining-room  and 
salons,  inspected  the  menu,  superintended  a  few  trifling 
alterations,  and  then  joined  my  host  and  fellow-sufferer 
in  the  drawing-room  a  few  minutes  before  the  arrival 
of  the  guests. 

The  dinner  was  gay,  and  even  brilliant,  but  to  me  it 
seemed  amazingly  tedious,  and  when  we  rose  from 
table  I  breathed  a  fervent  inward  prayer  that  all  these 
good  people  should  soon  depart  and  seek  the  seclusion 
of  their  own  dwelling-places.  About  eleven  o'clock 
they  finally  decided  to  do  so,  and  I  was  at  liberty 
to  bestow  myself  and  my  primrose -and -silver  semi- 
court  dress,  edged  with  lilies  and  gardenias,  in  my 
brougham,  which  I  did  with  a  curt  order  to  the  coach- 
man to  "  drive  fast,"  delivered  in  a  tone  he  knew  so  well 
that  the  horses  fairly  flew  down  one  avenue,  up  an- 
other, and  stopped  at  my  own  perron  within  the  mini- 
mum of  possible  time. 

The  house  was  silent,  and  nobody  in  sight  excepting 
Sahla,  waiting  in  the  hall,  and  my  head  woman,  who, 
when  I  entered,  rose  sleepily  from  a  chair  in  my  dress- 
ing-room, for  I  have  always  disliked  to  keep  the  entire 
household  up  when  I  go  out,  thinking  it  infinitely  pref- 
erable to  return  to  a  quiet,  silent  home,  where  carefully 
shaded  lamps  burn  low,  than  to  a  fatiguingly  wide- 
awake, dazzlingly  illuminated  place,  differing  in  noth- 

124 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

ing  from  the  one  just  left  excepting  that  it  is  one's 
own. 

Once  undressed,  and  robed  in  a  loose  gown  of  China 
silk,  very  cool  and  pleasant,  I  dismissed  Johanna,  and, 
lying  on  the  lounge  of  the  veranda  upon  which  my 
bedroom  opened,  turned  my  attention  to  a  cup  of  iced 
tea  which  she  had  placed  at  my  elbow. 

The  night  was  yet  another  of  those  indescribably 
magnificent  Oriental  displays  of  brilliant  moonshine 
and  starlight,  perfumed  breezes,  and  soothing  silence, 
which  it  is  hopeless  to  seek  anywhere  but  in  the  land 
where  the  lotus  blooms. 

I  lay  almost  motionless,  watching  the  saffron-col- 
ored roses  and  belles  de  nuit  garlanding  the  fluted  pil- 
lars in  front  of  me,  as  they  swayed  gently  in  the  caress- 
ing waves  of  air  blowing  over  lemon  and  magnolia 
groves  straight  from  the  limitless  desert. 

Not  feeling  sleepy,  and  remembering  with  some 
compunction  that  I  had  not  looked  at  the  evening  mail, 
I  rose,  and,  lighting  a  small  lantern,  stepped  into  the 
central  hall  and  walked  towards  the  chancellerie — a 
large,  low-ceiled  room,  where  Fred's  secretary  and  clerks 
worked  in  the  mornings  and  afternoons.  For  some 
unexplained  reason,  instead  of  following  the  veranda 
I  took  the  longer  way,  which  led  through  the  body  of 
the  house  to  the  left  wing,  and  my  footsteps  mak- 
ing no  sound  whatever  on  the  thick  Persian  rugs  car- 
peting every  inch  of  the  marble  floor,  I  passed  on  as 
silently  as  a  ghost,  absorbed  in  my  own  thoughts  and 
looking  neither  to  right  nor  left. 

Suddenly,  as  I  neared  the  small  side-door  leading 
from  the  private  apartments  into  the  chancellerie,  a 
slight  metallic  click,  like  the  gentle  fall  of  steel  upon 
steel,  arrested  my  attention,  and  I  stopped  short,  in- 
stinctively closing  the  slide  of  my  lantern  as  I  did  so. 

125 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

The  narrow  hall  was  but  faintly  illuminated  by  stray 
moonbeams  filtering  through  the  stained  glass  of  a 
distant  window,  and  as  soon  as  the  clear  gleam  of  the 
lantern  was  quenched  I  perceived  a  dim  streak  steadily 
shining  under  the  little  door  I  had  just  been  on  the 
point  of  opening. 

"Luigi  Effendi!"  I  muttered,  through  clinched  teeth. 

Noiselessly  I  ran  back  to  my  room,  picked  up  a  loaded 
revolver  from  a  table  near  the  bed,  and,  returning  quick- 
ly, thrust  the  door  wide. 

Bending  over  a  desk  sat  the  treacherous  secretary, 
his  tarboush  pushed  back  from  his  forehead,  upon  which 
the  rays  of  a  heavily  shaded  reading-lamp  fell  squarely. 
The  iron  safe  containing  all  the  secret  documents  stood 
wide  open,  a  small  bunch  of  keys  depending  from  the 
lock,  the  blinds  were  all  carefully  drawn  over  the  win- 
dows, and,  excepting  for  the  white  circle  of  light  encom- 
passing the  desk  and  the  safe,  the  vast  chamber  was 
filled  with  gloom. 

So  absorbed  was  the  man  in  his  work  that  he  did  not 
notice  the  slight  friction  of  the  door  against  the  carpet, 
and,  bending  forward,  I  saw  that  he  was  transcribing 
with  the  skill  and  facility  of  long  habit  a  ciphered  de- 
spatch, the  narrow,  blue  envelope  of  which,  cleverly 
opened  without  leaving  a  trace  of  the  operation  on  its 
glossy  surface,  being  placed  as  a  marker  across  the 
code  which  he  was  constantly  consulting,  and  which 
rested  against  a  revolver  of  large  calibre. 

The  blood  leaped  to  my  face  with  disgust  at  the  sight. 
I  abhor  dramatic  situations,  but  this,  such  as  it  was, 
left  no  scope  for  anything  but  violence,  so,  levelling 
the  muzzle  of  my  weapon  at  the  head  of  the  unsuspect- 
ing man,  I  said,  in  a  low  voice: 

"Throw  up  your  hands,  Luigi  Effendi,  and  do  not 
move  an  inch  or  I  will  fire  at  you." 

126 


THROW  UP    YOUR  HAXDS,  LUIGI  EFFENDI '  " 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

His  hands,  I  am  bound  to  say,  went  up  with  consid- 
erable promptness,  and  the  face  which  he  had  raised 
convulsively  from  his  writing  at  my  sudden  interpella- 
tion grew  absolutely  ghastly  in  its  cowardly  agony 
of  terror  and  baffled  rage;  but  he  managed  to  restrain 
both  feelings,  and  in  a  cringing  voice,  which  trem- 
bled sorely  in  spite  of  himself,  he  cried  out : 

"  Don't  shoot!  For  God's  sake,  don't  shoot!  It  is  all 
a  mistake.  I  am  doing  some  secret  work  for  my  lord 
— nothing  but  my  duty  as  his  confidential  secretary. 
Why  should  you  kill  me  for  it?" 

"You  contemptible  liar!"  I  said,  losing  all  patience. 
"None  of  that,  if  you  please.  I  have  long  suspected 
you,  and  I  know  whose  pay  you  receive  for  your  dirty 
work.  To  be  shot  down  like  the  dog  you  are  is  all  you 
deserve.  So  don't  tempt  me. " 

"Madame!  Madame!"  he  implored,  great  beads  of 
perspiration  starting  on  his  livid  face,  "have  mercy 
and  I  will  tell  you  all.  Indeed,  indeed,  I  was  forced 
into  this  against  my  will.  I  dared  not  disobey.  It  is 
the  truth,  as  God  hears  me." 

"Don't  talk  of  God,"  I  commanded,  and,  still  cover- 
ing him  with  my  revolver,  I  stepped  up  to  the  table, 
appropriated  his  pistol  with  my  disengaged  hand,  and 
sat  down  opposite  to  him  on  a  high  office-stool.  "  How 
long  have  you  been  pursuing  this  honorable  course?" 
I  continued.  "Answer.  It  is  useless  to  conceal  any- 
thing now,  for  you  are  entirely  in  my  power,  and  I 
am  not  minded  to  show  you  anything  but  the  strict- 
est justice." 

The  rogue  saw  that  his  game  was  up,  and  with  truly 
Italian  suppleness  he  then  and  there  made  a  full  con- 
fession, incriminating  his  accomplices  as  much  as  he 
could,  of  course.  When  he  ceased  speaking  I  said, 
curtly : 

127 


A   DOFFED  CORONET 

"Write  down  and  sign  everything  you  have  just 
told  me.  When  that  is  done,  you  will  leave  the  coun- 
try at  once  and  return  to  Italy.  If  you  refuse  to  obey 
me  I  will  alarm  the  household  and  hand  you  over  to 
the  police.  Take  your  choice." 

His  decision  was  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  his 
zeal  to  obey  the  first  part  of  my  order  really  admirable. 
When  he  had  covered  several  sheets  of  closely  written 
paper  with  his  splendidly  legible  chirography  and 
was  about  to  sign  his  name  to  them  I  intervened.  "  Wait 
a  moment,"  I  said;  "we  want  a  witness  to  this.  You 
are  far  too  slippery  a  fish  to  be  trusted  in  so  much  as  a 
single  particular,"  and,  bending  forward,  I  touched  the 
button  of  the  electric-bell  communicating  with  the  room 
of  my  confidential  Austrian  valet  de  chambre,  who  for 
the  past  eight  years  had  proved  to  be  the  trustiest  and 
most  loyal  of  creatures  in  many  trying  circumstances. 

During  the  few  minutes  which  elapsed  before  he  re- 
sponded to  the  call  a  dead  silence  reigned.  Luigi 
Effendi,  still  of  a  cadaverous  pallor,  leaned  his  head  upon 
his  trembling  hand,  and  with  downcast  eyes  and  ner- 
vously twitching  lips  looked  the  picture  of  abject  and 
degrading  submission,  while  I  continued  to  sit  erect  on 
the  tall  seat  I  had  chosen,  facing  him,  with  one  revolver 
in  my  fist  and  the  other  lying  across  my  lap,  unpleas- 
antly conscious  of  the  ridiculous  figure  I  must  be  cut- 
ting in  my  self-appointed  r61e  of  Lord  High  Execu- 
tioner. I  could  not  help  thinking,  too,  of  the  preceding 
evening,  and  of  dear  old  Jerry's  words  about  the  dan- 
gers which  might  come  my  way. 

"  He  was  right,"  I  mused,  "  for  had  that  craven  half- 
breed  kept  his  head  when  I  first  entered,  how  easily  he 
might  have  turned  the  tables  on  me." 

These  retrospective  meditations  were  here  interrupted 
by  the  entrance  of  my  good  Paul,  whose  hasty  attempt 

128 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

at  making  himself  presentable  had  produced  such  an 
incongruous  combination  of  bright  pink  pyjamas  and 
swallow-tail  coat  that  I  could  hardly  repress  a  burst  of 
unseasonable  merriment.  When  he  caught  sight  of  the 
scene  before  him,  however,  he  changed  with  surprising 
quickness  from  the  ludicrous  to  the  tragic,  and  his 
well-cut,  somewhat  stern  features,  at  first  almost  petri- 
fied by  the  extremity  of  his  astonishment,  assumed  so 
forbidding  and  menacing  an  expression  that  I  instinc- 
tively jumped  up  and  threw  myself  before  my  prisoner, 
who,  shuddering  from  head  to  foot  with  renewed  ter- 
ror, cowered  in  a  huddled  heap  across  the  desk. 

"Paul,"  I  said,  in  French,  "all  this  must  remain 
secret  excepting  in  the  case  of  any  disobedience  or  sign 
of  insubordination  on  the  part  of  this  fellow.  I  have 
summoned  you  here  to  witness  his  confession,  and 
also  to  take  absolute  charge  of  him." 

Not  a  muscle  of  my  worthy  attendant's  face  moved. 
He  merely  faced  around,  standing  at  attention  like  a 
soldier  before  his  commanding  officer,  his  keen  gray 
eyes  fixed  upon  me  with  alert  and  intelligent  compre- 
hension, but  showing  plainly,  in  the  almost  ferocious 
tension  of  his  whole  attitude,  that  should  I  order  him  to 
pounce  upon  the  wretched  Effendi  and  to  tear  him  limb 
from  limb  without  further  formality,  he  would  obey 
without  the  slightest  hesitation,  not  to  say  with  joyful 
alacrity. 

Turning  to  Luigi,  who  seemed  on  the  very  point  of 
fainting,  I  pointed  towards  the  pen,  which  had  dropped 
from  his  nerveless  fingers,  and  bent  over  him  until  he 
had  affixed  both  name  and  date  to  the  document,  which, 
used  by  me  in  the  right  quarter,  would  in  all  prob- 
ability cost  him  his  life.  This  accomplished,  I  bade 
Paul  go  and  terminate  his  toilet,  pack  a  valise  for 
himself,  and  then  return  to  me  as  soon  as  he  could. 
9  129 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"In  the  meanwhile  I  will  remain  on  guard  here,"  I 
concluded. 

"My  lady/'  whispered  Paul,  beseechingly,  "please 
allow  me  to  summon  Sahla.  He  is  devoted  to  your 
ladyship's  service,  and  would  not  betray  his  trust 
even  under  torture.  I  cannot  bear  to  leave  your  lady- 
ship with  this  criminal." 

"You  have  known  me  long  enough,  Paul,  to  avoid 
making  such  a  blunder  as  to  offer  me  a  garde  du  corps," 
I  replied,  sternly,  though  I  felt  more  like  laughing 
than  striking  heroic  attitudes,  and  I  added,  emphati- 
cally, "  Sputen  Sie  sich." 

The  familiar  Viennese  colloquialism  had  the  instan- 
taneous effect  of  making  Paul  back  out  of  the  room 
with  extraordinary  celerity,  pink  pyjamas,  swallow- 
tail coat,  and  all.  That  exit  would  have  made  the  fort- 
une of  any  comedian  privileged  to  copy  it  from  life. 

With  equal  speed  he  returned,  clad  in  a  faultless 
morning-suit,  and  carrying  in  his  hand  a  pith  helmet 
which  he  was  inordinately  proud  of  sporting  when  off 
duty,  thinking,  no  doubt,  that  it  added  a  distinguished 
and  Oriental  finish  to  his  appearance.  The  night  was 
by  now  far  advanced,  and  a  peculiar  creamy  quality 
in  the  air  coming  in  through  the  windows,  which  had 
long  ere  this  been  thrown  open,  heralded  the  advent  of 
dawn. 

"Paul,"  I  said,  "you  will  now  accompany  Luigi 
Effendi  home,  and  superintend  the  packing  up  of  his 
goods  and  chattels.  Then  take  him  to  Alexandria 
and  engage  passage  for  him  on  the  steamer  which 
leaves  for  Brindisi  to-morrow.  On  no  account,  how- 
ever, are  you  to  lose  sight  of  him  for  a  single  instant 
until  the  packet  weighs  anchor,  and  if  he  attempts  any 
trick  you  will  please  not  hesitate  to  call  the  police  to 
your  assistance.  I  will  give  you  a  letter  which  you  can 

130 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

use  as  your  credentials  in  case  such  a  thing  happens. 
As  to  you,"  I  continued,  addressing  myself  to  the  half- 
breed,  whose  discomfiture  was  complete,  "you  under- 
stand that  if  you  venture  to  disobey  my  orders,  not 
only  will  you  be  transferred  to  the  custody  of  the  au- 
thorities, but  your  confession  will  be  handed  by  me  to 
your  accomplices,  who  are  not  likely  to  show  you  much 
mercy." 

Then,  a  sudden  thought  presenting  itself  to  my  mind, 
I  demanded:  "Is  your  wife  in  Cairo?" 

"  No,  my  lady.  Fortunately  she  is  in  Italy  visiting 
her  friends — who  are,"  he  added,  with  something  of  his 
past  bumptiousness  and  singularly  ill-placed  vanity, 
"high  and  noble  people." 

"  I  am  delighted  to  hear  it,  in  your  interest,"  was  my 
slightly  scornful  and  sarcastic  rejoinder.  "It  is  to 
be  hoped,  however,  that  they  will  not  find  out  any- 
thing about  your  present  little  difficulty,  as  it  might 
alter  the  flattering  opinion  they  doubtless  entertain 
with  regard  to  you.  Paul  will  hand  you  at  the  last  a 
sum  of  money  sufficient  to  defray  your  travelling  and 
other  expenses,  but  do  not  attempt  to  come  back  to 
Egypt  until  I  myself  have  left  the  country  for  good  and 
all.  And,  furthermore,  I  will  have  you  shadowed,  and 
I  am  in  a  position  to  make  matters  extremely  unpleas- 
ant for  you  should  you  be  so  lamentably  imprudent 
as  to  play  me  false  a  second  time." 

I  then  gave  Paul  Luigi's  revolver,  motioned  him  to 
take  my  place,  and  left  the  room  to  get  the  money  and 
letter  which  were  needful  for  his  carrying  out  of  my 
orders.  Thirty  minutes  later  I  had  the  gratification  of 
seeing  my  dejected  captive  slinking  towards  the  gate 
with  the  crestfallen  mien  of  a  "fox  caught  by  a  hen," 
the  tall,  forbidding  form  of  my  Austrian  delegate,  re- 
volver in  hand,  towering  above  his  cowering  figure. 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"A  good  job  done!"  I  remarked  to  myself,  yawning 
desperately  and  stretching  my  cramped  limbs,  for  I 
was  beginning  to  feel  the  effect  of  this  impromptu  bit 
of  detective  work.  For  a  few  minutes  I  stood  on  the 
steps  gazing  at  the  delicate  flush  of  the  eastern  sky, 
so  faint  and  shadowy  as  yet  that  it  seemed  but  a  scarf 
of  silken  gauze  cast  across  the  paling  stars,  and  then, 
suddenly  recalling  the  extraordinary  threat  which 
Paul  had  murmured  to  his  prisoner  as  they  walked 
side  by  side  from  the  house,  all  the  laughter  pent  up 
during  the  night  by  reason  of  my  own  more  than 
necessarily  idiotic  position  shook  me  from  head  to 
foot  like  an  aspen-leaf,  weak  tears  coursing  down  my 
face  the  while. 

That  one  sentence  of  Paul's,  assuredly  not  meant  for 
my  ears,  had  done  the  trick.  It  teas  good.  "Mind 
you,  I  am  poisonous  when  I  spread  myself,"  that  re- 
markable and  eloquent  linguist  had  said,  "and  don't 
forget,  you  bung-eyed  mongrel,  that  if  you  so  much  as 
stir  a  finger  without  my  permission  I'll  shoot  you  twice 
over  so  as  to  keep  my  end  up,  and  set  fire  to  your  beard 
afterwards." 

Down  I  sank  on  the  lowest  step,  laughing  until  my 
sides  ached.  A  large  Judas-tree  close  by,  shaken  by 
the  rising  breeze,  scattered  its  magenta-hued  blossoms 
in  showers  upon  my  head,  and  one  of  my  pet  flamin- 
goes on  his  early  rounds,  attracted  by  the  sound  of 
my  uncontrollable  mirth,  stopped  short  and  gazed 
with  such  solemn  disapproval  at  me  that  I  grew  quite 
ashamed  of  myself  and  sought  the  seclusion  of  my 
room,  where  I  at  last  fell  asleep  just  as  the  fiery  orb  of 
the  rising  sun  was  transforming  the  awakening  world 
into  a  glory  of  molten  gold. 


CHAPTER  V 

There  lived  in  the  land  of  the  Nile 
A  clever  and  bad  crocodile, 

Whose  boiler-plate  mail 

And  umbrageous  tail 
Brought  all  things  his  way  for  a  while. 

But  his  merry  and  cynical  smile 

Took  a  hook  down  one  day  half  a  mile; 

He  was  hauled  with  a  yank 

To  the  flowery  bank, 
And  this  was  the  end  of  his  guile. 

M.  M. 

THE  sun  was  near  its  setting  as  I  drove  that  after- 
noon to  meet  Fred  at  the  station,  the  red  tulips  were 
glowing  bravely  in  the  Ezbekieh  Gardens  under  a 
sky  violet  like  the  cup  of  an  anemone,  and  the  military 
band  in  the  kiosk  was  playing  the  khedivial  hymn 
with  a  lavish  clamor  of  brass  to  which  my  mettlesome 
bays,  Castor  and  Pollux,  seemed  inclined  to  object. 
A  long  and  peaceful  sleep  —  the  result  of  a  good  con- 
science, no  doubt — had,  however,  fully  refreshed  me, 
and  a  gentle  but  firm  tightening  of  the  reins  reduced 
them  to  instant  obedience.  It  was  always  a  pleasure 
to  me,  when  I  was  my  own  charioteer,  to  watch  the 
graceful,  airy  flight  of  my  stalwart  sdises  in  front  of 
the  horses.  With  their  long,  flowing  white  sleeves,  loose 
white  breeches,  gold-broidered  azure  vests,  and  gorgeous 
silken  sashes  wound  round  their  slim  waists  in  sculpt- 
ural folds,  they  scarcely  seemed  to  touch  the  ground 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

with  the  tips  of  their  bronze-hued  feet  as  they  sped  along 
together,  without  any  apparent  effort,  the  very  em- 
bodiment of  lightness  and  elasticity.  To-day  their 
wonderfully  long,  easy  steps  were  somewhat  impeded 
by  the  unusual  concourse  of  people  all  along  the  boule- 
vards, waddling  on  foot  or  trotting  on  donkey -back 
with  as  little  industrial  effort  or  apparent  object  as  so 
many  unclean  street-flies — a  good-tempered,  dirty,  un- 
improvable tribe,  on  their  way  to  a  great  religious 
ceremony  beyond  the  old  Mooskie. 

Just  as  I  was  about  to  turn  into  the  avenue  leading 
to  the  terminus,  three  tall,  sleek  white  donkeys  hove 
in  sight,  bearing  as  many  huge  balloon-like  bundles 
of  black  silk  surmounted  by  impervious  veils,  through 
which  only  bright  eyes  were  perceptible.  In  other 
words,  it  was  a  small  detachment  of  harem  beauties, 
escorted  by  eunuchs  and  riding  astride  like  men,  as 
two  tiny  yellow  shoes  hammering  merrily  away  on 
either  side  of  each  costly  steed  conclusively  proved. 

Unfortunately  a  long  string  of  laden  camels,  with 
their  serpent-like  necks  and  crests  swaying  supercili- 
ously high  in  the  air,  and  grunting  hoarse  and  wrath- 
ful grunts,  swung  their  ungainly  bulks  and  burdens 
straight  in  the  path  of  the  aristocratic  white  asses. 
There  was  a  collision,  a  shriek,  a  twinkle  of  the  afore- 
said small  shoes  in  the  air,  and  the  foremost  of  the  fair 
riders  abruptly  forsook  her  saddle  to  wallow  most  un- 
gracefully upon  a  neighboring  heap  of  unsavory  refuse. 

At  once  there  was  wild  confusion.  The  crowd  rushed 
to  the  rescue,  for  there  was  backsheesh  in  sight.  Every- 
body fell  foul  of  everybody  else,  turbans  and  tarboushes 
bobbed,  and  galabiehs  flapped  on  this  side  and  that; 
there  was  pulling,  hauling,  shoving,  and  punching, 
cursing  and  shouting  galore,  while  high  over  all  the 
din  rose  the  shrill,  soprano  vociferations  of  the  indignant 

i34 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

eunuchs  and  the  frightened  yells  of  the  prostrate  lady, 
who  doubtless  expected  (and  with  good  reason)  to  be 
trampled  by  her  would-be  rescuers. 

I  had  all  I  could  do  to  manage  my  almost  stampeding 
horses  with  the  help  of  the  saises,  who  had  immediately 
jumped  to  their  heads,  and  began  to  fear  that  the  time 
of  my  lord's  arrival  would  be  past  before  the  road 
should  be  cleared  of  the  wildly  gesticulating  mob,  when 
a  familiar  sound  reached  me  through  the  tumult — 
"  Hallo-e-e-e-e-Hallo-o-o  " — the  war -cry  of  my  friend 
the  Judge! 

Glancing  about,  I  saw  a  large,  white  gingham  um- 
brella rising  and  falling  with  flail-like  regularity  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  throng,  which  suddenly  swayed  and 
broke,  and  down  through  "lanes  of  shouting"  dashed 
a  champion  indeed.  Mounted  on  a  knock-kneed  little 
donkey,  so  small  as  to  be  concealed  beneath  his  portly 
form,  save  for  four  tiny  hoofs  and  two  enormous  and 
intelligent  ears, "  Yankee  Doodle/'  in  his  inevitable  silk 
hat,  careered  along,  hammering  right  and  left  with  his 
umbrella,  and  discharging  volleys  of  explosive  English 
and  vernacular  oaths.  Three  other  donkey-riders  of 
his  acquaintance  followed  at  his  heels,  and  this  little 
cavalry  squad  drove  the  crowd  in  truly  gallant  style. 
In  a  twinkling  the  dismounted  lady  was  picked  up  and 
restored  to  her  affrighted  guardians,  the  tumult  had 
melted  away,  the  guilty  camels  were  defiling  down  a 
side  street,  and  my  road  lay  clear  to  the  railway  station. 

I  was  hardly  able  to  speak  for  laughing,  and  the 
thanks  I  attempted  to  offer  to  the  Chevalier  du  Merite 
were  utterly  lost,  for  his  tiny  charger,  seeing  himself  in 
possession  of  the  field,  gave  vent  to  the  hard,  dry  see- 
saw of  a  victorious  bray,  which,  taken  up  by  all  his 
fellow-laborers  with  spirited  unanimity,  surpassed  any 
outburst  of  donkey  music  I  had  ever  heard  before.  But 

i35 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  climax  of  the  ludicrous  was  reached  a  moment  later, 
when  the  Judge's  donkey-boy,  proud  of  his  animal's 
share  in  the  exploit,  fell  to  patting  and  caressing  the 
long -eared  one,  crooning,  in  a  fluent  monotone, 
"  Goodee  donkey  Lilly  Langtry,  a  goodee  bravee  don- 
key, muchee  better  you  than  big  white  ass,  muchee 
better  than  Sarah  Bernhardt,  muchee  better  than — " 
Here  the  Europeans  interfered  for  the  relief  of  their 
aching  sides,  and,  with  a  helpless  nod  of  farewell,  I 
signed  to  the  semes  to  give  the  horses  their  heads,  and 
pursued  my  way  at  a  rapid  pace. 

The  station  was,  as  usual,  packed  with  amateur  and 
professional  beggars  yelling  hoarsely  for  backsheesh, 
soldiers  just  enlisted  squatting  on  their  haunches  with 
long  sticks  of  sugar-cane  protruding  from  their  thick, 
brown  lips,  perspiring  Europeans,  and  old  Arabs  clad 
in  blue  linen — in  short,  with  that  fantastic  pell-mell, 
that  incongruous  blending  of  many  races  that  will 
touch  but  never  truly  mingle,  which  constitutes  the 
passing  throng  in  Eastern  cities  of  modern  times. 

I  alighted,  and,  preceded  by  my  groom,  who  shoul- 
dered a  way  through  the  crowd,  passed  on  to  the  plat- 
form, where  some  English  staff  officers,  all  a-glitter  with 
gold  lace,  were  grouped  around  Lady  B  .  .  .  .  g,  the 
British  Resident's  charming  and  popular  wife.  She 
also  was  awaiting  her  husband,  and  held  by  the  hand 
her  youngest  boy,  a  lovely  and  fragile-looking  child  in 
a  violet-velvet  suit,  with  a  cloud  of  pale,  corn-colored 
hair  framing  his  delicate  little  face. 

With  a  gurgling  and  prolonged  whistle  the  train 
pulled  up,  panting  and  puffing  painfully,  and  disgorged 

its  hot  and  dusty  passengers.  Fred  and  Sir  E n 

B . . . .  g  were  among  the  first  to  appear,  presenting  the 
inevitable  sorry  spectacle  which  a  long  ride  through 
the  desert  insures  without  the  possibility  of  escape,  the 

136 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

powdery  sand  drifting  in  through  the  crevices  of  the 
closed  windows  and  covering  the  hapless  traveller  with 
a  coating  of  yellow,  impalpable  grime. 

While  driving  home  along  the  disagreeably  Parisian- 
ized  boulevards,  where  once  the  branches  of  the  stately 
sycamores  planted  by  Mehemet-Ali  waved  their  lux- 
uriant branches,  we  talked  of  indifferent  subjects,  the 
presence  of  the  groom  making  it  impossible  for  me  to  let 
Fred  into  the  unsavory  and  unfathomable  mysteries  of 
Oriental  wiliness  exemplified  by  the  late  doings  of 
Luigi  Effendi ;  but  as  soon  as  we  reached  the  seclusion 
of  our  abode  I  placed  him  in  possession  of  the  facts. 
These  made  his  eyes  open  rather  wider  than  usual 
and  his  temper  fray  at  the  edges,  like  a  sorely  tried 
garment. 

For  over  an  hour  he  vituperated,  striding  up  and  down 
the  floor  in  the  height  of  exasperation,  while  I  heroi- 
cally refrained  from  capping  the  climax  by  pronounc- 
ing those  words  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  woman,  the 
crushing  "I  told  you  so!" 

At  last,  quite  exhausted,  he  accepted  my  suggestion 
of  turning  his  attention  to  his  bath  and  toilet,  but  before 
leaving  the  room  he  suddenly  walked  up  to  me  where 
I  sat  idly  playing  with  the  ears  of  Ali  Baba,  and, 
putting  his  hand  on  my  shoulder,  exclaimed : 

"Thank  you  for  your  generosity  and  forbearance, 
Pussy.  Unlike  other  good  women,  you  do  not  make 
of  your  virtues  and  excellencies  a  sheaf  of  poisoned 
arrows  for  the  destruction  of  those  less  sagacious  than 
yourself.  God  deliver  me  from  such  I  I'd  rather  deal 
with  sinners  who  have  put  a  foot  through  every  precept 
of  the  Decalogue.  There's  some  sympathy  in  them — 
at  least,  sometimes ! " 

I  burst  out  laughing.  "  Oh,  get  along  with  you,  my 
dearest  boy ! "  I  exclaimed.  "  Dismiss  all  these  annoy- 

137 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ances  from  your  head  for  the  present ;  you  are  due  at 
Abdeen  at  half-past  nine,  and  it  is  now  forty-five  min- 
utes after  seven.  Do  you  want  the  chef  to  commit 
suicide,  like  Vatel,  because  your  dinner  will  have  been 
spoiled  by  waiting?" 

I  had  never  seen  him  so  fully  roused  or  so  reckless  in 
denunciation  of  his  difficult  position,  and  I  was  propor- 
tionately worried.  His  violence  had  spent  itself,  but 
I,  knowing  him  as  I  did,  felt  that  there  was  some  real 
menace  and  stern  meaning  in  this  tranquillity  follow- 
ing so  closely  upon  it. 

"  I  told  you  long  ago,"  he  said,  smiling  slightly  and 
a  little  bitterly,  "  that  your  life  with  me  would  not  be  a 
bed  of  roses.  I  suppose  that  you  realize  the  veracity  of 
my  words  now." 

"  Fred/'  I  replied,  sharply,  for  I  was  really  beginning 
to  be  annoyed,  "  I  must  beg  you  not  to  talk  in  this  way. 
When  I  regret  having  married  you  I  will  tell  you  so 
quite  frankly,  you  may  be  sure!  For  the  present  we 
have  no  time  for  such  useless  vaporings,  so  go  and 
get  dressed — and  let  me  do  likewise,"  I  concluded,  in  a 
lighter  tone. 

"You  are  certainly  an  extraordinary  woman,"  he 
murmured,  as  he  kissed  my  hand,  and  with  that  he 
left  me. 

Late  that  evening  I  stood  by  one  of  the  open  windows 
of  the  billiard-room  looking  out  upon  the  shadowy  gar- 
dens, and  listening  to  the  peaceful  splashing  of  the 
fountains  in  the  artificial  ponds  under  the  trees.  I 
had  sent  word  to  the  boab  that  I  would  be  at  home  for 
nobody,  knowing  that  Fred  would  be  anxious  to  talk 
the  incidents  of  the  last  forty-eight  hours  over  with 
me  when  he  came  back  from  the  palace. 

But  the  hours  passed  on  and  he  did  not  come. 

Evening  became  night,  the  great  clock  in  the  main 

138 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

hall  struck  the  half  after  eleven,  and  the  air,  laden  with 
the  sweet  breath  of  millions  of  native  hyacinths  hiding 
amid  the  underbrush,  had  grown  perceptibly  colder 
before  he  at  length  arrived,  looking  pale  and  weary,  but 
with  a  singular  and  almost  mischievous  expression  in 
his  eyes.  He  carried  in  both  hands,  as  if  it  were  exces- 
sively heavy,  a  coarse  canvas  bag,  at  which  I  looked 
with  undisguised  surprise.  The  low,  cushioned  win- 
dow-seat where  I  sat  was  littered  with  my  fan,  my  cig- 
arette-case, an  open  book,  and  a  cluster  of  tea-roses, 
all  of  which  my  lord  unceremoniously  swept  away; 
then  with  a  smart  jerk  he  upset  his  ungainly  burden, 
and  a  shower  of  gold  pieces — more  than  a  thousand, 
as  I  found  out  afterwards — came  down  with  a  musical 
clatter  upon  the  silk  of  the  cushions. 

For  a  moment  I  gazed  in  silence  at  the  glittering 
heap,  from  which  the  lamps  burning  over  the  billiard- 
table  coaxed  forth  subdued  rays  of  tawny  mellowness ; 
then,  mastering  my  curiosity,  for  I  always  enjoyed 
teasing  Fred  a  little,  I  said,  sweetly: 

"  The  banks  stay  open  late  to-night,  dear — or  did  you 
bring  this  from  Alexandria  as  a  surprise  for  me?" 

"Is  that  all  you  find  to  say?"  he  exclaimed,  almost 
resentfully.  "Well,  I  can  at  least  surprise  you  in 
another  way."  Then,  making  a  dramatic  pause,  as 
is  de  rigueur  for  any  eloquent  orator  before  heaving  a 
particularly  impressive  argument  at  the  heads  of  his 
audience,  he  cried : 

"  We  start  this  very  day  for  England,  and  yon  yellow 
stuff  represents  my  personal  travelling  expenses,  as 
handed  me  half  an  hour  ago  by  Tewfik  Khedive  him- 
self. Now  what  do  you  say  to  that?" 

"Very  handsome  of  him,  I'm  sure,"  I  answered,  per- 
versely, running  my  fingers  through  the  small  moun- 
tain of  golden  disks.  But  noticing  that  poor  Fred — 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

who  was  still  sometimes  very  boyish  in  his  ways — really 
felt  crestfallen  at  my  unfeeling  acceptation  of  his  little 
coup-de-the&tre,  I  looked  up  at  him  merrily,  and,  hold- 
ing out  several  of  the  pieces  towards  him,  I  said :  "  Look, 
old  boy,  the  Viceroy  must  be  getting  rather  poor  for  a 
crowned  head.  He's  dug  down  near  to  the  original 
floor  of  his  treasure-vault,  and  has  surely  struck  the 
stratum  laid  down  by  his  great-great-grandfather,  for 
many  of  these  things  are  apparently  Jacobuses  and 
old  Georges,  worth  their  face  value  several  times  over!" 

"Is  that  so?"  he  replied,  striding  to  the  lamp,  coins 
in  hand,  and  then  we  both  laughed  like  children  at  an 
episode  so  very  Oriental  and  out  of  the  common,  al- 
though I  myself  was  seriously  vexed  at  the  prospect 
of  another  breathless  flight  over  two  continents  and 
as  many  tossing  seas,  and  all,  most  probably,  for  a 
wild-goose  chase,  as  was  usually  the  case  for  those 
journeying  on  Tewfik's  errands. 

There  was,  of  course,  no  sleep  for  us  that  night. 
The  household  was  aroused,  and  all  was  at  once  bustle 
and  preparation.  When  I  at  last,  after  untold  fatigues, 
finally  emerged  from  my  dressing-room  clothed  for  the 
journey,  Fred  came  up,  carrying  the  ridiculous-looking 
canvas-bag. 

"Oh,  Pussy/'  he  said,  desperately,  "how  are  we  to 
carry  that  dead  weight?  We  cannot  very  well  trust  it 
to  the  servants  travelling  with  us.  Sahla  is  staying 
here  to  mind  the  place  during  our  absence,  and  Paul, 
to  whom  I  have  wired,  will  only  meet  us  at  Alexandria. 
I  can  stow  but  a  small  portion  of  the  contents  about  my 
own  person.  What  am  I  to  do  with  the  rest?" 

I  pondered  for  a  minute,  and  then  fetched  from  my 
room  a  small  satchel  of  white  levantine  morocco  hang- 
ing from  a  platinum-clasped  belt  of  the  same  material, 
which  was  one  of  my  favorite  travelling  adjuncts,  and, 

140 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

emptying  it  hastily,  filled  it  to  the  brim  with  the  golden 
guineas  and  louis  from  the  canvas  sack.  The  weight 
was  a  heavy  one,  but  little  did  I  care,  for,  to  begin  with, 
I  would  hardly  be  called  upon  to  walk  more  than  a  few 
steps  at  a  time,  as  we  jumped  from  carriages  to  trains 
and  from  trains  to  steamers;  and,  moreover,  I  knew 
that  I  was  perfectly  equal  to  carrying  it  had  it  been 
double  its  present  respectable  bulk. 

As  we  drove,  an  hour  later,  through  all  the  sunshine 
and  stillness  and  fragrance  of  the  gardens,  beneath 
the  arched  splendor  of  the  rose  avenue  and  the  long 
aisle  of  berceaux,  garlanded  with  pink  and  saffron  hued 
banskia  in  full  flower,  I  heaved  a  deep  sigh  of  regret, 
for  I  knew  that  when  we  returned  the  fierce  heat  of 
summer  would  have  scorched  all  that  delicate  loveli- 
ness into  ashy  sereness  and  decay.  I  disliked  very 
much,  just  then,  the  idea  of  exchanging  my  admirably 
ordained  and  delicious  Cairene  home  for  the  bustle  and 
hurry  and  discomforts  of  hotels,  my  dignified  and 
soft-footed  Oriental  servants  for  the  English  "  Jeames," 
the  French  "Jeans,"  or  the  Italian  "Giovannis"  of 
commerce,  and  the  soft  and  balmy  air  of  Egypt  for  the 
raw  east  winds  and  sour,  rain-laden  skies  of  northern 
Europe. 

Before  long  we  reached  the  sordid-looking  station 
in  a  cloud  of  dust  which  made  the  horses  snort  impa- 
tiently, and  in  a  few  minutes  more  were  on  the  plat- 
form in  the  heart  of  a  howling  mob  of  Arabs  and  Lev- 
antines of  every  conceivable  breed,  which  fell  back 
reluctantly  at  the  earnest  and  "  striking  "  solicitations 
of  our  kavasses.  Sahla  registered  our  luggage  —  of 
which  there  was  not  much  for  so  hurried  a  trip — 
finally  entering  into  a  violent  altercation  with  one  of 
the  railway's  officials  about  the  position  of  the  saloon 
carriage  reserved  for  us.  Has  voice,  for  once  raised  in 

141 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

genuine  anger  high  above  the  deafening  clamor  of  the 
crowd,  caused  Fred  to  hand  me  quickly  into  the  train 
and  to  run  over  to  the  spot  where  they  were  wildly  ges- 
ticulating. 

Unspeakable  was  the  noise,  the  glare,  the  flies,  and 
the  ceaseless  shrieking  for  backsheesh  of  the  impish  and 
filthy  little  vendors  patrolling  the  platform  with  their 
goolahs  of  water,  their  baskets  of  oranges  and  fresh 
dates,  and  their  wilted  bouquets  of  discouraged  mag- 
nolias and  gardenias.  I  gazed  amusedly  at  the  ever- 
changing  scene,  grew  interested  in  a  free  fight  between 
two  abominably  dirty  boys  for  the  possession  of  a  small 
coin,  and  finally  became  so  absorbed  in  my  own 
thoughts  that  I  did  not  at  first  notice  that  we  were 
gently  gliding  out  of  the  station.  It  was  only  the  sight 
of  the  wonderful  varieties  of  verdure  spread  over  the 
map-like  stretch  of  table-land  surrounding  the  city,  and 
over  which  camels  and  greasy  water-oxen  were  patient- 
ly plodding  with  their  half-naked  fellaheen  drivers  be- 
side them,  that  made  me  turn  to  see  where  Fred  was 
hiding  himself.  I  glanced  about  the  velvet-upholstered 
salon,  but  it  was  empty  save  for  my  own  personal  and 
special  attendant,  Mohammed  Yousuf,  who  stood  on 
duty  behind  me  motionless  as  a  statue  in  his  flowing 
white  draperies,  with  hands  folded  over  the  hilt  of  the 
formidable  yataghan  stuck  in  his  silken  belt. 

"Where  is  your  master?"  I  asked  of  him.  "Is  he 
in  the  smoking-carriage?" 

With  true  Oriental  impassiveness  he  replied,  not  a 
muscle  of  his  dark  face  moving  as  he  spoke :  "  My  lord 
came  just  in  time  to  be  too  late,  Allah's  will  be  done, 
Maleshl"  1  stared  at  him  thunderstruck;  then  the 
gravity  of  the  situation  dawning  upon  me,  I  made  him 
fetch  the  conductor  in  charge  of  the  train,  and  when 
that  worthy  presented  himself,  salaaming  with  becom- 

142 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ing  humility,  my  worst  suspicions  were  confirmed,  for, 
as  I  had  thought,  there  would  be  no  other  train  leaving 
Cairo  that  would  reach  Alexandria  before  the  sailing  of 
the  mail-steamer  for  Brindisi.  This  was,  indeed,  a  nice 
dilemma.  "God  send  that  he  may  think  of  a  special 
train!"  I  muttered,  fervently.  "Tewfik's  gold  pieces 
will  be  seriously  diminished  thereby,  but,  as  Mohammed 
Yousuf  says,  Malesh." 

We  were  now  swiftly  rushing  over  lonely  tracts 
of  land  towards  Kaffir-Azzayat.  From  among  the 
reeds  and  yellowing  grasses  by  the  side  of  the  track 
plovers  were  rising,  and  I  sat  by  a  window,  watching 
vacantly  the  play  of  the  sunshine  upon  the  waving 
foliage  of  the  fields  of  sugar-cane  or  corn,  which  made 
great  patches  of  intense  verdure  upon  the  dun-colored 
ground.  The  carriage  was  darkened  from  the  pierc- 
ing light  without,  and  in  its  twilight  the  gleam  of  Mo- 
hammed's eyes  and  dazzling  white  teeth  were  alone 
discernible,  as  he  plied  a  huge  feather  fly-chaser  with 
untiring  diligence,  his  voluminous  muslin  sleeve  fall- 
ing and  rising  like  the  pinion  of  a  soaring  frigate  bird. 

At  last  we  reached  Kaffir-Azzayat,  and,  anxious  to 
wire  back  to  Cairo  in  order  to  find  out  whether  or  not 
Fred  would  be  in  time  for  the  steamer,  I  rose  quick- 
ly, and  without  waiting  for  Mohammed's  help  jumped 
down  upon  the  platform,  which,  of  course,  was  thronged 
with  a  host  of  people  who  had  no  business  whatsoever 
to  be  there.  Unfortunately,  in  my  hurry  I  had  for- 
gotten the  bag  of  gold  hanging  at  my  waist.  The  shock 
of  my  abrupt  descent  to  terra  firma  burst  open  the  lock, 
and  the  guineas  rolled  out  in  a  veritable  avalanche 
under  the  feet  of  the  countless  natives  lounging  to  and 
fro. 

In  true  Egyptian  fashion,  Mohammed,  who  had  fol- 
lowed me,  began  to  belabor  that  rabble  rout  with  his 

143 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

kourbash  before  any  possible  excuse  had  been  offered 
him  for  such  sudden  violence ;  but  it  soon  became  ap- 
parent that  his  decisive  action  was  well  considered,  for 
not  one  of  the  gold  pieces  escaped  recovery,  the  whole 
amount  being  scrupulously  picked  up  by  the  blue-robed 
fellahs  and  white-robed  porters,  and  handed  to  him  with 
extraordinary  empresszinent.  Thoroughly  exasperated 
by  this  odious  contretemps,  but  also  desirous  of  reward- 
ing this  touching  display  of  enforced  honesty,  I  scatter- 
ed a  couple  of  handfuls  of  piastres  taken  from  my  ener- 
getic attendant's  travelling  satchel  among  the  gold 
rescuers,  and  passed  on  to  a  very  primitive  telegraph- 
office,  where  I  had  the  gratification  of  discovering,  after 
a  prolonged  dispute  over  the  wires  between  the  employes 
at  either  end — during  which  the  train  was  kept  back  by 
the  obsequious  station-master  in  spite  of  the  loud  and 
discordant  protestations  of  the  other  passengers — that 
Fred  was  following  me  at  a  couple  of  hours'  interval  on 
a  special  train.  Greatly  reassured,  I  once  more  took 
my  place,  and  after  a  loud  banging  of  doors  and  much 
unnecessary  shrieking  we  got  off,  accompanied  by  the 
enthusiastic  yells  of  joy  and  eulogistic  epithets  of  the 
recipients  of  my  largesse. 

On  we  sped,  now  through  the  dead  silence  and  weird 
solitude  of  endless  gray  wastes  unrelieved  by  tree,  bush, 
or  shrub,  with  only  the  throbbing  of  the  engine  and  the 
friction  of  the  wheels  on  the  polished  rails  to  remind  us 
of  civilization,  now  skirting  long  avenues  of  acacias 
and  wild  figs,  or  leafy  bowers  of  palms  sheltering  clus- 
ters of  little  mud  hovels  built  en  forter esses,  and  from  the 
narrow  loopholes  of  which  hung  blue  and  crimson  rags 
— the  family  washing,  no  doubt — in  picturesque  con- 
fusion. Truly  there  were  views  constantly  being 
framed  in  the  carriage  windows  that  would  have  made 
the  fortune  of  any  painter  talented  enough  to  catch  the 

144 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

couleur  locale  with  which  they  teemed.  But  this  is 
again  digressing  from  my  subject. 

I  breathed  a  sigh  of  deep  relief  on  entering  the  Alex- 
andria terminus,  where,  praise  be  to  a  merciful  Provi- 
dence, everything  was  admirably  systematized  for  the 
safe  reception  and  farther  transportation  of  passengers 
and  of  their  luggage.  As  I  drove  through  the  principal 
streets  to  the  Grand  Plaza,  on  or  near  which  all  the 
leading  hotels  were  then  situated,  I  was  once  again 
unpleasantly  struck  by  the  disgustingly  correct  and 
European  aspect  of  the  city  which  so  short  a  time  be- 
fore had  been  levelled  to  an  almost  complete  wreck  of 
ruins  by  British  shot  and  shell. 

A  general  air  of  freshness  and  bustle  pervaded  the 
whole  place,  contrasting  strongly  with  the  drowsy  indo- 
lence of  Cairo.  Alas  for  the  above-mentioned  couleur 
locale!  Alexandria,  like  Smyrna  and  several  other 
Eastern  cities,  is  a  decided  disappointment  to  lovers 
of  the  Orient.  However,  I  had  the  compensatory  pleas- 
ure of  finding  my  faithful  Paul  awaiting  me  at  the 
hotel,  where  he  had  caused  a  suite  of  rooms  to  be  pre- 
pared for  me  in  exactly  the  fashion  I  liked,  with  masses 
of  flowers  everywhere,  down-drawn  blinds  insuring 
coolness,  and  a  dainty  collation  of  fruit  and  sherbet 
disposed  on  the  balcony  overlooking  the  gardens.  He 
reported  that  Luigi  Effendi  had  behaved  throughout 
the  trip  with  astonishing  meekness  and  propriety — as 
indeed,  considering  Paul's  imposing  personality,  I  had 
expected.  After  commending  him  for  his  masterly 
management,  I  hurriedly  changed  my  dress  and  went 
to  the  station  to  meet  Fred. 

I  will  drop  a  merciful  curtain  over  the  personal  ap- 
pearance of  the  poor  fellow  when,  tired  and  furious,  he 
swung  himself  from  the  train  that  evening.  In  his 
impatience  he  had  imagined  that  he  would  shorten  the 

145 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

route  by  riding  on  the  engine  and  vituperating  the 
driver,  with  the  pleasing  result  of  transforming  his  face, 
hands,  and  ultra-chic  pale  gray  travelling  suit  into  a 
monochrome  of  rich,  sooty  blackness,  and  his  temper 
into  something  for  which  the  English  language  affords 
no  adequate  descriptive  phraseology. 

Tout  est  bien  qui  finit  bien,  however,  for  in  spite  of  all 
these  vexations  we  managed  to  board  in  excellent 
time  the  good  ship  Mongolia,  whose  jolly  and  kind- 
hearted  captain — an  old  friend,  for  this  was  the  fifth 
time  we  were  crossing  with  him — made  us  royally  wel- 
come. After  four  days  of  pleasant  gliding  between 
blue  skies  and  bluer  waters  we  landed  at  Brindisi, 
jumped  without  delay  from  the  steamer  to  the  express 
train,  as  I  had  expected  that  we  would,  and  swiftly  sped 
through  many  little,  crumbling  mediaeval  towns,  each 
of  which  had  had  its  strategic  importance  and  season 
of  glory  in  the  days  when  the  Moorish  corsairs  used  to 
descend  like  swooping  vultures  upon  these  coasts. 
Unfortunately,  the  whole  region  seems  never  to  have 
recovered  from  these  repeated  shocks,  and  wears  to 
this  day  a  lugubrious  stamp  of  poverty  and  decay,  very 
melancholy  to  observe  even  en  passant. 

Our  first  halt  was  at  Naples,  and  it  would  have  been 
a  short  one  had  not  ex  -  Khedive  Ismail  Pasha,  who 
was  then  sojourning  at  La  Favorita  (a  beautiful  resi- 
dence lent  to  him  by  King  Humbert),  finding  out  by 
means  best  known  to  himself  that  we  were  within  easy 
reach,  sent  for  Fred  the  very  moment  we  set  foot  in 
our  hotel.  In  order  to  describe  La  Favorita,  I  would 
merely  have  to  borrow  a  string  of  adjectives  descriptive 
of  flowers,  shrubs,  bubbling  fountains,  verdant  lawns, 
and  beautiful  views,  from  previous  pages  of  this  narra- 
tive, and  so  I  will  pass  it  over  and  devote  my  energies 
to  the  more  difficult  task  of  sketching,  physically  and 

146 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

morally,  that  most  extraordinary  of  Oriental  Rulers, 
Ismail  Khedive,  who  for  a  long  span  was  regarded  as 
the  luckiest  of  human  beings,  but  whose  last  years  were 
sufficiently  miserable  to  make  up,  and  more  than  make 
up,  for  the  insolent  good  fortune  hitherto  his. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  on  my  part  to  dabble  at 
any  length  with  the  historical  side  of  Ismail's  career, 
for  better  pens  than  mine  have  long  ere  this  accom- 
plished that  task,  and  yet  it  is  quite  impossible  to  talk 
of  the  dispossessed  Khedive  as  he  was  when  I  saw  him 
for  the  last  time  in  his  Neapolitan  exile  without  touch- 
ing, if  ever  so  slightly,  upon  the  times  immediately  pre- 
ceding his  flight  from  Egypt.  The  strangest  feature  of 
his  great  run  of  luck  is  that  it  was  inaugurated  by  what 
many  claim  to  have  been  a  crime  committed  in  cold 
blood,  whereas  his  misfortunes  dated  from  the  very 
moment  when  he  attempted  the  suppression  of  the 
slave-trade  in  his  dominions,  which  goes  far  to  show 
— for  why  not  be  sententious  when  one  can — that  vir- 
tue is  occasionally  punished  and  crime  rewarded. 

Everybody  knows  that  his  accession  to  the  throne 
was  due  to  an  accident — namely,  the  tragic  death  of  his 
elder  brother  Achmet  in  the  raging  waters  of  the  Nile 
during  the  flood  rise  of  1858.  Rumors  were  rife  when 
this  happened  as  to  the  then  Prince  Ismail's  complicity 
in  the  terrible  catastrophe,  thanks  to  which  the  sceptre 
came  within  his  grasp,  for  it  was  difficult  not  to  find  a 
curious  coincidence  between  his  excusing  himself  at 
the  last  moment  from  accompanying  his  brother  to  the 
fetes  given  by  Sa.d  Pasha  at  Alexandria  (the  invita- 
tions to  which  amounted  really  to  commands),  and  the 
fact  that  by  so  doing  he  escaped  the  sinister  fate  which 
befell  the  royal  party  on  the  return  trip  to  Cairo. 

At  Kaffir-Azzayat,  midway  between  Alexandria  and 
Cairo,  the  railway  passes  over  the  Nile  by  Stephenson's 

i47 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

famous  drawbridge.  As  the  train  with  all  its  august 
occupants  came  thundering  down  the  steep  slope  lead- 
ing to  the  bridge,  the  engineer  saw  too  late  that  the  draw 
was  open,  and  that  a  fearful  gulf  yawned  above  the 
flooded  waters  racing  wildly  towards  the  sea  seventy- 
five  feet  below.  Vainly  he  tried  to  reverse  the  engine, 
but  with  no  effect,  and  the  entire  train  leaped  into  the 
river,  with  all  the  passengers  on  board. 

The  only  man  to  escape  from  that  awful  death-trap 
was  Prince  Hamlin,  the  young  and  beloved  brother  of 
Said  Pasha.  Skilled  in  all  athletic  sports,  and,  more- 
over, a  remarkably  powerful  swimmer,  the  Prince,  while 
the  train  hung  yet  suspended  in  mid-air,  jumped  clear 
of  the  salon  carriage  he  had  occupied,  and,  plunging 
headlong  into  the  frothing  waters,  gained  with  diffi- 
culty the  shore,  where  he  lay  exhausted  and  helpless 
until  he  was  picked  up  by  the  horrified  bridge  employes 
who  had  witnessed  the  awful  incident. 

They,  at  any  rate,  could  not  be  held  responsible,  for  the 
director  of  the  railroad,  whose  duty  it  was  not  only  to 
have  the  passage  of  the  train  signalled  in  time,  but  to 
accompany  it  in  person  on  this  occasion,  had,  like  Prince 
Ismail,  excused  himself  at  the  last  moment  on  a  plea 
of  sudden,  and,  under  the  ensuing  circumstances,  some- 
what suspicious,  indisposition.  Be  all  this  as  it  may, 
Achmet's  death  left  the  succession  to  the  throne  clear 
for  Ismail,  and  when  Said  joined  in  his  turn  the  great 
majority,  he  found  himself  enabled  to  inaugurate  at 
once  the  numerous  reforms  which  he  had  long  since 
planned  against  the  time  of  his  possible  accession. 

Ismail  Khedive  was,  in  spite  of  his  lack  of  all  claim 
to  good  looks,  a  highly  interesting,  and  to  many  a  most 
fascinating,  man.  Under  the  middle  height,  heavily 
and  squarely  built,  with  extremely  broad  shoulders, 
which  made  him  appear  much  shorter  of  stature  than 

148 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

he  really  was,  he  had  a  round,  full  face,  with  regular 
features,  a  short-cropped  beard  and  mustache  partially 
concealing  a  rather  cruel  and  sensuous  mouth,  and  the 
most  extraordinary  eyes  in  the  world.  Although  he 
ordinarily  kept  them  half  closed,  when  he  condescended 
to  open  them  there  was  a  sharp,  penetrating,  steely  flash 
from  the  gold-pailletted  orbs,  so  keen  and  disconcerting 
that  his  interlocutors  found  it  difficult  to  suppress  a 
sudden  sense  of  dread  and  insecurity,  as  well  as  an 
instinctive  distruct  of  this  uncanny  personage,  whose 
habitual  expression  was  positively  sphinx-like  in  its 
gentle  and  somewhat  contemptuous  coldness. 

His  voice,  too,  was  always  a  surprise,  for  it  possess- 
ed a  well  -  modulated,  caressing  persuasiveness  which 
came  oddly  from  so  autocratic  a  man,  especially  when 
coupled  with  the  winning,  witching  smile  which  trans- 
figured him  so  strangely  when  he  sought  to  please,  but 
under  this  mask  of  bland  serenity  there  lurked  a  strength 
and  a  force  of  purpose  which  few  could  resist,  and  which 
bent  to  his  will  all  those  who  came  into  contact  with  him. 

It  would  be,  however,  a  great  mistake  to  imagine 
that  Ismail  Khedive  was  the  mere  blood-thirsty  oppressor 
which  he  has  often  been  represented  to  be.  Nothing 
could  be  falser,  for,  indeed,  many  are  the  deeds  of  mercy 
which  can  be  brought  home  to  him,  both  during  his 
reign  and  afterwards.  Also  he  was  a  great  diplomat, 
shrewd,  sagacious,  supple,  and  of  such  adroitness  that 
he  was  not  unjustly  nicknamed  the  Oriental  Talleyrand. 
Whatever  his  faults  and  shortcomings,  at  all  events 
he  was  so  excessively  superior  to  his  paltry  successor, 
that  to  visit  him  after  a  protracted  course  of  Tewfik 
Khedive's  regime  was  like  passing  from  a  tainted  and 
miasma-laden  atmosphere  to  the  clear,  cold,  biting,  and 
bracing  air  of  a  snow-capped  mountain  summit. 

The  Sardanapalian  luxury  with  which  Ismail  loved 

149 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

to  surround  himself  was  tempered  by  taste  of  a  very 
high  order,  for  he  knew  how  to  make  that  rarest  of  all 
distinctions  which  separates  magnificence  from  vulgar 
display,  and  even  in  the  selection  of  the  gifts  which  he 
lavished  upon  those  about  him  there  was  the  stamp  of 
a  judgment  enlightened  and  truly  artistic. 

In  diplomatic  circles  he  was  nicknamed  Son  Imper- 
turbabilite,  as  he  never  betrayed  any  sign  of  disap- 
pointment, joy,  or  sorrow,  and,  like  La  Grande  Cathe- 
rine, first  of  that  sobriquet,  remained  on  all  occasions 
absolutely  unmoved,  whether  in  public  or  sotto  quattr'- 
occhi  with  an  intimate  friend  or  boon  companion.  Last, 
but  not  least,  this  blue-eyed  and  sandy-bearded  Ori- 
ental was  remarkably  well  informed  upon  most  ques- 
tions of  the  day.  Also  his  knowledge  of  practical 
matters  was  of  a  singularly  universal  and  comprehen- 
sive character,  as  was  clearly  displayed  by  the  intelli- 
gent manner  in  which  during  his  reign  he  personally 
superintended  the  construction  of  railroads,  docks, 
sugar  factories,  elaborate  systems  of  irrigation,  the 
founding  of  schools  and  hospitals,  and  a  thousand 
other  improvements  which  transformed  the  Egypt  of 
Mehemet-Ali  almost  beyond  recognition. 

But,  alas !  the  day  of  reckoning  came  at  the  end  of 
thirteen  years — an  unlucky  number  for  him,  of  a  truth — 
thirteen  years  of  boundless  extravagance,  during  which 
he  had  negotiated  a  national  debt  of  one  hundred 
million  pounds  sterling,  the  interest  of  which  could  no 
longer  be  met.  Then  followed  the  intervention  of 
France,  Germany,  and  England,  the  appointment  of 
a  commission  of  financial  investigation,  the  generous 
offer  made  by  Ismail  to  surrender  his  private  estates, 
amounting  to  something  over  five  million  pounds  ster- 
ling, the  demand  made  upon  him  for  further  sacrifices 
and  concessions,  not  only  of  a  financial  but  of  a  politi- 
co 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

cal  character,  to  which  he  could  not  and  would  not 
agree,  and  finally  his  deposition  by  the  Sultan  (whose 
bitter  jealousy  he  had  aroused  by  his  unconquerable 
spirit  of  independence)  and  his  departure  from  the  land 
of  Egypt,  preceded  by  the  secret  expedition  at  the  dead 
of  night  of  a  file  of  military  fourgons  laden  with  specie 
and  jewels  supposed  to  have  been  worth  some  twenty 
million  pounds  sterling. 

This  treasure  was  conveyed  from  the  harim'lik  of 
Abdeen  over  the  long-abandoned  caravan  route  to  Suez 
under  the  escort  of  the  dispossessed  Khedive's  private 
janissaries,  and  embarked  on  a  steamer  which  for  a 
week  had  been  waiting  within  hail  of  the  shore. 

Poor  Ismail !  His  punishment  was,  of  a  truth,  great- 
er than  his  crimes!  To  a  man  as  fond  of  power  as 
he  was,  his  enforced  inactivity,  and  his  hopeless  exile 
from  all  that  which  he  had  created  and  loved,  was  gall 
and  wormwood  indeed,  and  the  numerous  conspiracies 
which  he  fomented  to  recover  his  lost  kingdom  found 
their  explanation,  if  not  their  excuse,  in  the  cruelly 
crushed  ambition  and  pride  which  never  for  an  instant 
stopped  bleeding  inwardly. 

I  immediately  surmised,  when  Fred  was  so  pressingly 
invited  to  visit  the  ex-Khedive,  toute  affaire  cessante, 
that  probably  once  again  the  spirit  of  intrigue  had  en- 
tered into  him,  but  forbore  from  mentioning  my  opinion 
on  the  subject  to  my  lord,  having  long  since  learned 
that  prophecies,  whether  good  or  bad,  are  most  useless 
and  pointless  weapons,  and  sometimes  even  very  im- 
politic ones  to  handle. 

Nor  was  I  mistaken,  for  with  his  usual  delicacy  of 
touch  and  consummate  ability  and  tact,  Ismail  gave 
Fred  to  understand — avoiding,  of  course,  any  crude 
statement  or  direct  offer — that  the  man  who  assisted 
him  in  re-entering  his  closed  paradise  would  become 

151 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

rich  and  powerful  beyond  the  dreams  of  all  imaginable 
greed.  The  whole  subject  was  treated  sub  rosa,  and 
with  such  nonchalance  and  coolness  that  the  most 
umbrageous  honesty  could  not  well  take  offence.  And 
when  Fred,  in  an  equally  guarded  fashion,  made  it 
clear  to  his  illustrious  tempter  that  his  own  ambitions 
were  of  the  most  modest  kind  and  quite  removed  from 
any  possibility  of  compromise,  far  from  showing  how 
greatly  disappointed  he  was,  "that  devil  of  a  man" — 
as  Nubar  used  to  call  him — beamed  upon  his  incorrup- 
tible guest,  and  entreated  him  to  accept  for  himself  and 
for  me  an  invitation  to  luncheon  the  next  day,  sending 
me  on  that  very  evening  a  wealth  of  magnificent  orchids 
avec  homages  respectueux. 

"  He  is  superb!"  I  mused,  gazing  at  his  floral  offering, 
while  Fred  was  repeating  to  me  the  conversation  which 
had  taken  place  between  him  and  the  supple  and  wily 
Albanian.  "Truly  such  unscrupulous  cleverness  is 
piquant,  nay,  almost  refreshing,  and  a  man  who  never 
blunders,  never  acknowledges  himself  beaten,  and  con- 
trives never  to  take  a 'rebuff,  is,  in  spite  of  any  code  of 
morals,  a  man  to  wonder  at  and  to  admire  after  a 
fashion." 

When  we  reached  La  Favorita  at  the  appointed  time 
I  was  charmed  with  the  improvements  instituted  by 
Ismail  throughout  that  lofty,  spacious,  lovely  house. 
Delving  in  his  treasure  chests,  he  had  brought  forth  to 
the  light  of  day  brocades  with  gold  threads  and  silver 
embroideries  gleaming  on  their  glossy  surfaces,  weapons 
so  profusely  jewelled  that  they  sparkled  where  they 
hung  like  fluctuating  sun-rays,  and  many  unique 
pieces  of  transparent  enamelling  or  precious  metal 
patiently  wrought  into  wonderful  patterns  by  those 
masterly  artificers  of  the  Far  East,  who,  sitting  on  mats 
under  the  waving  foliage  of  palm  and  sycamore,  or  in 

152 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  deep  gloom  of  bazaars,  give  a  whole  lifetime  to  the 
completion  of  one  single  object,  the  finished  beauty  of 
which  finds  not  its  equal. 

The  sumptuous  villa  looked  its  handsomest  with  the 
brightness  of  the  Italian  noon  dancing  on  its  many 
windows,  on  its  pinnacles  and  crockets  and  spires,  and 
on  the  folds  of  the  silken  flag  drooping  upon  its  central 
terrace.  The  gardens  were  gay  with  dahlias,  fuchsias, 
camellias,  and  roses,  and  two  white  peacocks — birds  of 
ill-omen,  they  say  in  Brittany — swept  the  marble  perron 
with  their  long,  diapered  tails. 

Ismail,  accompanied  by  his  faithful  old  friend  and 
retainer,  Ragheb  Pasha,  the  only  one  of  his  courtiers 
who  had  loyally  followed  him  into  exile,  came  to  meet 
us  with  the  courteous  and  charming  grace  which  he 
knew  so  well  how  to  assume,  and  did  the  honors  of  his 
table  with  perfect  taste  and  simplicity,  and  with  that 
high-bred  repose  of  manner  which  is  one  of  the  most 
covetable  accomplishments  of  a  host.  Moreover,  the 
little  repast  was  daintily  and  admirably  prepared  and 
served,  but  not  ostentatious ;  some  delicious  Neapolitan 
oysters — the  best  in  the  world,  as  many  gourmets  claim 
— sent  to  the  table  on  a  bed  of  pale-green  algse,  which 
gave  them  a  most  appetizing  look;  prawns  stewed  in 
champagne;  fat  little  quails  roasted  in  vine-leaves; 
mushrooms  stuffed  with  foie  gras ;  white  Milanese  truf- 
fles sous  la  serviette ;  a  salad  of  pineapple  and  Russian 
violets,  as  good  to  eat  as  it  was  to  look  at ;  and,  finally, 
some  wonderful  fruit  accompanied  by  inimitable  Turk- 
ish patisseries,  only  found  in  Harims,  and  matching 
in  perfection  the  fragrant  coffee  smoking  in  tiny  cups 
of  priceless  porcelain  and  gold  filigree  work,  which 
was  brought  to  us  with  verbena-scented  cigarettes  of 
exquisite  flavor. 

Ismail  was  in  one  of  his  most  captivating  moods, 


displaying  his  many  -  faceted  wit,  and  also  the  fact 
that  he  was  not  only  an  earnest  scholar,  but  a  man 
deeply  interested  in  all  new  inventions  and  topics 
of  the  hour.  His  conversation,  easy,  brilliant,  and 
fluent,  fascinated  us  in  no  mean  degree,  for  it  had  a 
flavor  as  rare  and  as  pure  as  the  old  wines  glittering 
in  the  delicate  glasses  before  our  plates.  His  knowledge 
of  all  the  finesses  of  the  French  language — which  he 
preferred  to  all  others — was  really  wonderful,  but  a 
quaint  trick  of  interlarding  his  sentences  with  frequent 
de  cis  and  de  l&s  and  cecis  and  celas,  although  giving 
them  an  individuality  and  a  sort  of  cachet,  became 
slightly  tedious  after  a  while. 

After  luncheon  we  sat  on  the  marble  terrace,  com- 
manding a  view  wellnigh  unequalled  for  its  serene 
loveliness  and  richness  of  coloring,  unwilling  to  take 
our  departure,  so  pleased  and  interested  were  we  by  the 
depth  of  thought,  aptness  of  quotation,  and  originality 
of  opinion  displayed  by  the  versatile  ex-Khedive.  One 
would  really  have  thought  that  he  had  set  his  heart  on 
making  a  conquest  of  us,  and  the  slight  antagonism 
I  had  felt  against  him,  since  his  conversation  with 
Fred,  melted  away  as  I  listened  and  replied,  for  there 
was  a  melody  in  his  voice  and  a  charm  in  his  manner 
that  it  was  not  easy  to  resist.  Knowing  me  well  enough 
to  realize  that  I  was  averse  to  flattery,  he  met  me  on 
the  common  ground  of  art,  travels,  and  sport,  having, 
like  myself,  a  real  passion  for  good  horse-flesh,  and  on 
that,  as  on  all  other  topics  upon  which  he  had  touched, 
he  conversed  easily,  discursively,  and  delightfully. 

The  noon  had  deepened  into  afternoon,  and  the  chimes 
of  a  distant  church  were  sounding  four  when  we  rose 
to  take  our  leave,  but  as  we  turned  to  re-enter  the  house 
an  aide-de-camp,  with  a  strangely  blanched  face,  ap- 
proached rapidly  and  murmured  some  words  in  his 

i54 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

master's  ear.  For  the  first  time  in  my  acquaintance 
with  Ismail  I  saw  uncontrollable  anger  sweep  over 
his  face,  which  turned  literally  livid,  and  then  flushed 
darkly,  his  eyes  kindling  with  deep  wrath. 

For  a  second  he  positively  staggered,  then,  with  a 
short  excuse  delivered  in  a  strained,  hoarse  voice, 
passed  quickly  into  the  house,  followed  by  his  gentle- 
man, leaving  us  completely  mystified  and  not  a  little 
anxious,  for  the  blow  which  had  just  fallen  on  our  host 
could  be  no  mean  one  to  have  created  such  an  impres- 
sion on  such  a  man. 

Of  course  the  merest  form  of  etiquette  forbade  us  to 
depart  without  taking  leave  of  him,  or,  at  least,  before 
receiving  a  message  to  the  effect  that  he  would  not  re- 
turn, and  so  we  sat  down  again  on  the  bamboo  rocking- 
chairs  we  had  so  recently  vacated,  occupying  our  time 
in  admiring  the  exquisite  panorama  before  us,  bright, 
beautiful,  and  as  full  of  shifting  light  as  diamonds 
are.  Half  an  hour  or  so  elapsed,  and  I  was  getting  a 
little  impatient  and  annoyed,  when  suddenly  Ismail 
reappeared,  and  as  I  perceived  the  change  in  his  look, 
in  his  carriage,  in  every  feature  of  his  face,  which  had 
become  aged  and  drawn  and  bloodless,  I  rose  in  alarm 
and  took  a  step  to  meet  him. 

"Pardon  me  for  having  been  so  discourteous  as  to 
keep  you  waiting,"  he  said,  with  evident  effort.  Then 
a  convulsion  passed  over  his  face,  a  short  sob  rattled 
in  his  throat,  and  he  sank  limply  upon  a  chair,  cover- 
ing his  eyes  with  his  hands. 

"Monseigneur,"  I  murmured,  greatly  moved,  "is 
there  anything  we  can  do?" 

He  did  not  stir,  and  Fred,  much  embarrassed,  and 
feeling  the  extreme  awkwardness  of  his  position,  moved 
softly  to  the  farther  end  of  the  terrace,  seemingly  ab- 
sorbed in  the  rolling  of  a  recalcitrant  cigarette. 

i55 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

Ismail  sat  still,  leaning  his  face  on  his  hand,  grimly 
repressing  every  gesture  or  word  that  could  have  re- 
vealed what  was  passing  in  his  mind,  but  presenting 
such  a  spectacle  of  distress,  nevertheless,  that  I  was 
quite  at  a  loss  what  to  say  or  do. 

"Monseigneur,"  I  whispered  again,  venturing  to 
touch  him  lightly  on  the  shoulder,  for  the  agony  of 
this  strong  man  was  painful  to  behold,  and  I  hoped 
that  by  reminding  him  of  the  presence  of  comparative 
strangers  I  would  restore  to  him  his  wonted  energy. 

With  a  shudder  he  rose,  and,  standing  once  more 
firm  and  erect,  said,  almost  brutally: 

"I  am  not  fit  to  be  seen  just  now,  and  yet  courage 
fails  me  to  face  alone  the  supreme  shame  and  sor- 
row of  my  life.  Listen!"  he  added,  seizing  my  wrist 
between  his  strong  fingers,  while  an  expression  of 
tigerish  fury  drew  his  brows  together.  "Listen! 
Shame  has  been  done  me,  shame  so  deep,  so  black,  so 
cruel,  that  I — yes,  even  I — am  powerless  to  avenge  it ! 
There  was  one  woman  whom  I  held  dear  above  all 
earthly  things,  a  lovely,  antelope-eyed  creature,  lithe 
and  graceful  as  a  palm-tree,  a  priceless  pearl,  on  whom 
I  could  not  endure  any  other  sight  than  my  own  to 
look,  whom  I  married  to  be  the  joy  of  my  old  age, 
and  whom  I  guarded  as  the  greatest  gem  of  my  treas- 
ures. Riches,  honor,  life  itself  I  would  have  surren- 
dered rather  than  surrender  her.  She  was  my  one 
consolation,  my  one  hope,  my  one  tenderness,  for  she 
was  something  beyond  all  her  sex,  and  she  loved  me 
with  a  great  love.  Yes,  me,  who  was  so  unworthy  of 
her — as  I  thought." 

He  paused,  the  veins  on  his  forehead  swelling  like 
purple  cords,  and  his  sinewy,  massive  form  gathered 
together  as  for  a  spring.  Then  he  laughed,  a  short, 
stern,  sardonic  laugh,  horrible  to  hear.  Mute  with 

156 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

astonishment,  I  looked  at  him,  deep  pity  rising  in  my 
heart. 

"Last  night/'  he  continued,  heeding  me  no  more 
than  had  I  been  the  empty  air,  "  she  lay  in  my  arms, 
her  sweet,  false  face  pillowed  on  my  breast,  and  before 
dawn,  when  I  left  her,  she  was  sleeping  like  a  child, 
an  innocent,  pure,  sinless  child,  guarded  by  angels. 
Yet  she  is  gone — as  Allah  liveth! — she  has  fled  from 
me,  from  my  passionate  love,  from  my  unbounded 
tenderness,  fled  with  another — may  he  be  accursed! — 
to  the  noise,  the  mirth,  the  riotous  vice,  the  desecrat- 
ing glare  of  the  outside  world!" 

The  unfortunate  man  crushed  a  blasphemous  oath 
through  his  clinched  teeth,  his  eyes  burning  like  flames, 
his  lips  quivering  with  impotent  fury,  his  whole  frame 
trembling  violently.  I  had  seen  almost  every  shape 
of  mental  and  physical  suffering,  but  the  torture  which 
shook  his  steel -knit  frame  passed  all  that  I  had 
dreamed  as  possible.  It  was  held  as  in  bonds  of  iron, 
for  the  sake  of  what  remained  to  him  of  pride  as  a  once 
great  ruler  and  leader  of  men,  but  its  tremors  spoke 
more  than  any  eloquence  ever  spoke  in  this  world. 
I  bent  my  head  as  I  heard  him;  my  own  teeth  were 
clinched,  and  but  for  a  little  I  would  have  shared 
his  anger  and  indignation  to  the  point  of  myself 
cursing  the  woman  and  the  man  who  had  left  him  so 
desolate. 

Of  course,  no  words  of  mine  were  likely  to  be  of  use, 
and  I  still  kept  silent,  trusting  in  my  mute  sympathy 
more  than  in  anything  I  could  have  said  or  done. 
Fred  remained  where  he  had  at  first  moved  to,  leaning 
over  the  parapet  of  the  terrace  as  if  rapt  in  contempla- 
tion of  the  verdant  gardens,  and  Ismail,  evidently 
quite  oblivious  of  his  presence,  gazed  straight  before 
him,  his  face  gradually  reassuming  a  more  natural 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

expression.  At  last  he  spoke,  a  wicked  gleam  flashing 
from  under  his  now  half-shut  eyelids,  and  his  voice 
sounding  harsh  and  metallic,  like  clanging  bronze. 

"  I  would  sooner  have  doubted  anything  in  earth  or 
heaven  than  have  believed  that  my  darling  should 
ever  betray  me,  and  yet  she  made  me  her  dupe,  as  had 
I  been  the  most  malleable  of  easily  cozened  fools." 

A  nervous  spasm  of  laughter  contracted  his  mouth, 
like  a  rictus  of  death.  "  My  word !"  thought  I.  "  How 
he  will  hate  me  later  for  having  been  a  witness  to  such 
shame  and  humiliation!"  To  a  Mohammedan,  women 
impure  and  unfaithful  are  the  horror  of  horrors,  and  to 
be  betrayed  as  he  had  been,  the  last  degree  of  dishonor. 
But  I  might  as  well  have  tried  to  move  mountains  from 
their  bases  as  to  stem  the  boiling  torrent  of  his  wrath. 
All  the  pent-up  emotions  of  a  lifetime  breaking  through 
the  triple  bastions  of  his  pride,  his  self-restraint  and 
his  great  moral  strength  had  gotten  beyond  his  con- 
trol, and  certainly  beyond  mine,  under  that  intolerable 
outrage  and  deception  which  burned  him  like  devouring 
flames,  and  as  I  watched  him  I  felt  a  little  sorry  for 
Fred  and  for  myself,  since  Ismail  was  not  a  pleasant 
enemy  to  make,  nor  a  man  to  forgive  those  who  had 
thus  seen  him  lay  his  soul  bare. 

Perhaps  he  guessed  my  thoughts,  for  with  a  great 
effort  he  pulled  himself  together. 

"  You  have  been  very  good,  very  patient,  to  listen  to 
what  I  have  told  you.  I  thank  you  from  my  heart, 
and  I  crave  your  pardon  for  disturbing  your  purity  with 
so  foul  a  tale.  I  am  betrayed,  befooled,  and,  alas !  I 
have  no  longer  the  power  to  avenge  betrayal — at  least, 
as  I  understand  revenge.  The  enormity  of  this  irre- 
parable wrong  is  but  a  paltry  excuse  for  my  present 
lack  of  courage  to  meet  it.  But  let  that  pass." 

Again  he  paused,  and  then  rapidly,  as  if  he  owed  me 

158 


'  1  WILL  WREAK  SUCH  VENGEANCE  AS    MAY  WELL,   BE  AN 
EXAMPLE  TO  ALL  TRAITORS !'  " 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

some  explanation  and  wished  now  to  get  it  as  quickly 
over  as  possible,  he  added: 

"This  morning,  before  dawn,  she  stole  away  to  her 
lover's  arms.  I  am  told  he  is  a  young  and  wealthy 
American,  who  has  been,  it  appears,  cruising  about  in 
sight  of  this  shore  for  several  weeks.  How  he  evQr 
saw  her  or  spoke  to  her  I  know  not  as  yet,  but  upon 
those  of  my  people  who  have  helped  her  in  this  I  will 
wreak  such  vengeance  as  may  well  be  an  example  to 
all  traitors!" 

" Monseigneur,"  I  said,  in  reply,  "do  you  think  that 
any  woman  on  earth  is  worth  such  grief  as  yours? 
When  you  are  calmer,  I  think,  and  better  able  to  gauge 
the  shallowness  of  the  joys  you  now  regret,  and  to  see 
that  the  dishonor  is  not  yours,  but  belongs  to  the  man 
who  stole  her  from  you  like  a  thief  in  the  night,  this 
great  bitterness  will  pass  from  you,  and,  perchance, 
pity  alone  remain." 

"  Pity ! "  he  laughed,  aloud.  "  Ah,  no !  Heaven  may 
forgive.  I  never  shall.  But  your  words  are  brave 
and  ought  to  show  me  the  way.  Would  that  I  had 
your  spirit,  but,  Inshallah !  this  blow  has  broken  me 
as  I  never  dreamed  of  being  broken.  Forgive  me, 
I  implore  you  again,  and  believe  in  my  undying  grat- 
itude!" He  bowed  low  over  my  hand,  pressed  it  to  his 
lips,  and  without  another  word,  without  a  gesture, 
he  left  the  terrace  with  his  old,  determined,  soldierly 
step. 

Sadly  I  looked  after  him. 

He  was  at  heart  but  a  half-savage  tyrant,  perchance, 
but  yet  infinite  sympathy  and  pity  made  my  soul  ache 
for  him. 

As  we  rushed  without  halt  across  Europe  to  Eng- 
land, the  memory  of  that  scene  on  the  terrace  of  La 
Favorita  chilled  and  depressed  me  singularly,  nor  could 

i59 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

I  succeed  for  many  days  in  shaking  off  the  painful  im- 
pression created  thereby. 

London  was  not  looking  its  best  when  we  arrived. 
There  was  a  gray  sky  and  a  strong  north  wind  blowing 
sourly  through  the  soot-begrimed  streets,  and  although 
crocuses  and  primroses  shyly  peeped  through  the  turf 
of  Hyde  Park,  yet  the  trees  were  still  almost  completely 
denuded,  and  if  ever  I  saw  a  man  look  unutterable 
disgust,  Fred  looked  it  as  we  drove  from  the  station 
to  our  own  place. 

"How  unpatriotic  you  are,"  I  said,  smiling  at  his 
frowning  countenance. 

"Damn  patriotism,"  he  replied,  with  more  candor 
than  politeness.  "  London  is  a  coarse,  uncouth,  and 
discourteous  city,  if  ever  there  was  one.  We  are  sup- 
posed to  be  a  superior  race;  we  have  conquered  half 
the  world  or  thereabouts ;  yet  our  capital  is  the  din- 
giest spot  on  earth,  we  ourselves  behave  like  Yahoos 
whenever  we  get  the  chance,  and,  as  far  as  our  climate 
is  concerned,  even  the  marble  and  bronze  statues  in 
the  squares  and  parks  crumble  under  its  gentle  minis- 
trations." 

I  laughed  again.     "You  are  quite  as  outspoken  as 

the  old  Duke  of  C e,  who  asked  me  last  year  at 

a  Foreign  Office  reception,  'What  do  you  think  of  this 
bear  garden  which  we  Londoners  are  pleased  to  call 
the  best  people?'  I  was  at  a  loss  what  to  answer  for 
once  in  my  life,  which  seemed  to  delight  him  im- 
mensely. '  You  are  too  well  bred/  he  chuckled,  'to  tell 
me  how  charmingly  impressed  you  are  by  the  delicate 
daintiness  of  our  pushing,  gushing,  vulgar  society 
people,  who  frequently  behave  as  if  born  in  Shoreditch 
or  the  Seven  Dials.  Indeed,  you  must  be  irresistibly 
struck  with  the  extent  to  which  sweetness  and  polish 
prevail  on  our  island."' 

160 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"What  did  you  say?"  interrupted  Fred,  with  a  grin. 

"Oh,  I  said  something  about  London  being  handi- 
capped by  the  versatility  of  its  climate,  and  concluded 
with  some  inanity  about  fogs  and  rain  having  a  dele- 
terious influence  upon  its  inhabitants,  at  which  brilliant 
apergu  he  laughed  most  heartily  and  unblushingly. 

At  that  moment  the  carriage  stopped  at  our  portals, 
and  we  descended  amid  an  inelegant  and  common- 
place crowd  hurrying  under  umbrellas  along  the  un- 
tidy-looking street,  which,  indeed,  seemed  unspeakably 
dark  and  noisy  and  ugly  after  the  forests  of  magnolia, 
the  waving  palms,  the  white  palaces  like  ivory  cut  into 
lace -work,  and  the  dignified  Arabs  and  Turks  and 
Moors  we  had  left  behind  us  a  few  short  days  before. 

"  After  all,"  I  exclaimed,  a  moment  later,  as  I  entered 
my  own  especial  and  favorite  room,  "it  is  good  to  be 
amid  some  of  one's  own  goods  and  chattels  again." 

It  was  a  quaint,  pleasant  apartment,  a  mixture  of 
every  style,  suggestive  of  la  vie  intime  and  of  true 
repose.  The  hangings  and  furniture  were  subdued  in 
coloring,  and  great,  shallow  bowls,  filled  with  simple, 
fragrant  wood  -  violets,  made  its  atmosphere  one  of 
spring. 

"Oh,  you  are  irretrievably  good-tempered,"  grumbled 
poor  Fred,  with  whom  the  climate  of  London  always 
and  hopelessly  disagrees.  "Good  God!"  he  added, 
shrugging  his  shoulders  and  opening  his  cigarette- 
case,  "  what  asses  we  are  to  imagine  that  we  can  teach 
the  Orient  anything.  Conceit  surely  goes  no  farther." 

"You  are  very  depressing,  my  good  boy,  and  very 
opinionated,"  I  said,  with  dawning  impatience,  "and 
if  you  keep  up  your  lamentations  much  longer  I  can- 
not promise  that  my  temper — which  you  were  so  good 
as  to  praise  just  now — will  not  fray  out  at  the  edges, 
even  as  yours  has  done.  Really,  if  you  are  determined 
»  161 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

to  be  logical  and  unromantic,  and  to  revile  your  native 
town  and  your  compatriots  for  the  rest  of  the  evening, 
I  shall  be  compelled  to  do  so,  too,  in  sheer  self-defence, 
and  that  you  will  not  like,  as  you  very  well  know." 

Fortunately,  a  servant  just  then  entered  and  an- 
nounced my  father-in-law.  With  swift  steps  and  much 
joy  in  our  hearts  we  went  to  meet  the  dear  old  gen- 
tleman, whose  handsome  face  cleared  and  brightened 
with  pleasure  at  our  greeting,  and  there  was  an  end  of 
Fred's  ill-humor,  and  of  every  other  unpleasant  thing 
for  the  time  being. 

I  have  always  thought,  and  think  so  still,  that  Pater 
— as  we  invariably  called  him — was  then  one  of  the 
most  popular  men  in  England.  He  had  the  kindest  of 
hearts,  a  great  charm  of  manner,  a  bright  and  steady 
wit,  a  cheerful  spirit,  and,  what  is  better  than  all  the 
rest,  no  one  on  earth  ever  found  in  him  a  single  im- 
pulse that  was  not  unselfish,  a  single  sentiment  that 
was  rooted  in  vanity,  or  a  single  motive  dictated  by 
self-indulgence. 

We  were  the  greatest  of  friends,  he  and  I,  and  we 
immediately  set  to  work  planning  and  plotting  to  see 
as  much  of  each  other  as  possible  in  the  intervals  of 
unavoidable  social  duties  during  my  short  stay,  while 
Fred  was  gyrating  from  London  to  Windsor  and  back 
again,  on  secret  and  solemn  errands  bent. 

We  had  succulent  little  suppers  when  returning 
from  the  theatre  or  opera,  drove  about  quite  after  the 
manner  of  tourists,  spending  hours  at  Kew  Gardens 
or  Richmond,  or  simply  in  the  Park,  where  we  fed  the 
ducks  and  swans.  We  journeyed  one  day  to  Brighton 
to  get  a  breath  of  fresh,  pure,  salty  air,  and  even  did 
some  shopping  together,  visiting  jewellers',  modistes', 
art-galleries,  museums,  exhibitions,  and  what-not  else, 
like  two  country  cousins,  and  enjoyed  ourselves  im- 

162 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

mensely.  Fortunately,  my  mother-in-law  and  her  nu- 
merous daughters  were  away,  a  calamity  which  we 
accepted  with  pious  and  unblushing  resignation,  and 
the  feelings  with  which  the  proverbial  mice  are  credited 
when  the  cat  is  absent. 

Seldom  had  London  been  so  agitated  in  its  lower 
depths  as  was  the  case  during  this  short  visit  of  ours. 
The  "Reds"  were  troublesome,  and  the  murmurings 
of  the  populace  distinctly  audible  above  the  gay  mu- 
sic and  merry  laughter  of  the  privileged  classes  going 
through  the  pleasures  of  a  brilliant  season.  Hostile 
demonstrations  had  been  quite  frequent  during  the 
past  weeks,  and  some  alarm  was  felt  by  those  in  power 
lest  the  beast  of  revolution  should  break  loose  from  its 
straining  chains  and  do  much  damage.  Truly,  a  rad- 
ical government  was  not  a  reassuring  one,  and  the 
Conservatives  strutted  about  with  inflated  chests  and 
a  general  expression  of,  "Had  you  elected  us,"  and 
"We  told  you  so,"  stamped  clearly  all  over  them, 
while  the  "  Grand  Old  Man "  was  openly  accused  of 
ruling 

"  With  a  firebrand  for  a  sceptre 
And  a  fool's-cap  for  a  crown." 

The  weather  improved,  and  one  might  almost  have 
said  that  belated  spring  was  remorsefully  hurrying 
to  make  her  bow  and  proffer  her  apologies,  as  testified 
by  the  many-hued  parterres,  green  turf,  and  fresh, 
delicate  verdure  (which  the  famous  London  soot  was 
doing  its  best  to  discourage,  but  which  bravely  held 
its  own  with  the  aid  of  daily  showers),  and  by  the 
flower-filled  window-boxes  all  over  Mayfair  and  other 
select  regions. 

One  morning  I  was  riding  placidly  up  the  "Row," 
followed  by  a  groom,  when  I  was  accosted  by  Lord 

163 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

George  L n,  not  without  cause  nicknamed  by 

society,  "the  Saurian  Apollo,"  for  he  was  one  of  those 
magnificently  handsome  men  whom  one  rarely  meets 
out  of  England,  superbly  tall,  ideally  blond,  blue-eyed, 
and  aristocratic,  but  rather  uncomfortably  dull. 

After  uttering  a  few  commonplaces,  this  young  god 
suddenly  drawled:  "I  say,  you  know,  now,  upon  my 
honor,  you  should  not  be  riding  in  the  Park  to-day; 
really,  now,  it  is  imprudent!  The  Home  Secretary 
was  telling  me  a  few  moments  ago  that  trouble  is 
expected.  The  'Roughs'  are  prowling  about,  and 
they  may  invade  the  Park ;  beastly  shame,  too,  crush 
all  the  flowers;  wish  one  could  rake  them  down — the 
'Roughs/  of  course  —  with  a  volley  of  grape-shot." 
And  exhausted  by  this,  for  him,  unusually  eloquent 
and  lengthy  speech,  he  fell  to  stroking  his  little,  gold- 
colored  mustache,  while  his  limpid  and  ingenuous 
eyes  wandered  aimlessly  about,  as  if  in  search  of  revo- 
lutionary bands  lurking  behind  the  bushes. 

"  Your  sentiments  do  you  great  credit,"  I  said,  laugh- 
ing, "but  I  am  not  the  least  little  bit  afraid  of  mobs. 
They  are  so  easily  cowed.  I've  met  with  them  in  Hun- 
gary and  in  Paris,  where  they  are  much  more  excitable 
and  dangerous  than  here,  and  so  can  claim  a  certain 
familiarity  with  such  cattle." 

"  Oh,  just  as  you  like,  of  course,"  he  replied,  with  a 
shrug  of  his  broad  shoulders.  "Perhaps  it's  a  false 
alarm,  after  all,  but  I'd  better  ride  with  you,  in  case  you 
do  get  yourself  into  trouble." 

His  tone  of  insufferable  protection  got  on  my  nerves, 
and  with  more  asperity  than  gratitude  for  his  proffered 
services,  I  exclaimed : 

"Pray  do  not  do  anything  of  the  kind.  I  am  per- 
fectly able  to  take  care  of  myself."  Then  noticing  his 
crestfallen  air,  for  he  was  as  a  rule  greatly  flattered  and 

164 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

petted  by  women,  I  added,  with  a  smile,  "  Thank  you 
very  much,  all  the  same,"  and  wheeling  my  horse 
sharply  around  I  set  off  at  a  hand-gallop,  calling  out 
to  him  as  I  did  so,  over  my  shoulder,  "  Remember  me 
to  your  mother  and  sisters/'  and  left  him,  sitting  his 
gigantic  sorrel  like  a  statue  of  disappointment. 

Nevertheless,  I  enjoyed  my  ride  greatly,  under  the  fine, 
gauzy  velum  of  budding  trees,  casting  mosaic-like,  trans- 
parent shadows  upon  the  ground,  and  when  I  turned 
my  face  towards  home  I  had  completely  forgotten  Lord 
George's  warning.  As  I  came  in  view  of  the  deliciously 
flower-bowered  lodge  at  Stanhope  Gate,  I  was  sharply 
reminded  of  it  by  the  sight  of  a  disorderly  and  wildly 
gesticulating  procession  of  men  and  women,  bearing 
red  flags  and  emitting  hoarse  roars  of  menace  as  they 
advanced,  ruthlessly  trampling  the  tender  grass  of  the 
velvety  lawns  and  demolishing  plants  and  shrubs  under 
their  multitudinous  feet.  In  imitation  of  the  populace, 
I  left  the  path  for  the  sward,  with  a  view  of  making  a 
circuit  to  avoid  their  perspiring,  howling,  and  malo- 
dorous contact,  all  the  more,  too,  as  both  my  horse  and 
the  groom's,  quite  terrified  by  sights  and  sounds  which 
ere  this  had  never  met  their  aristocratic  eyes  and  ears, 
began  to  fret,  plunge,  and  rear  in  a  fashion  which 
might  at  any  moment  end  in  a  double  runaway. 

My  strategic  movement  was,  however,  of  no  use 
whatsoever,  for  the  mob  was  spreading  out  on  both 
sides  like  a  fan,  and  the  foremost  rank,  catching  sight 
of  me,  broke  into  a  chorus  of  vile  execrations  quite 
deafening  in  volume,  and  portending  intentions  by  no 
means  friendly  to  myself. 

A  minute  more  and  I  was  completely  surrounded, 
separated  from  my  groom  by  an  angry  sea  of  abomin- 
able, open-mouthed  heads  that  completely  beggars 
description,  and  before  I  had  time  to  quite  realize  my 

165 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

position  my  horse  and  I  were  jammed  fast  in  those 
vociferating  hordes  of  temporary  maniacs.  Truly,  it 
was  no  joke  to  control  my  mettlesome  chestnut,  Will-o'- 
the-Wisp,  for,  prevented  from  advancing,  terrified  and 
infuriated  by  that  awful  din,  which  had  for  leitmotif 
the  unutterably  ghastly  Yah  of  the  infuriated  London 
pleb,  the  animal  attempted  to  rise  on  his  hind  legs 
and  paw  murderously  the  living  mass  pressing  him 
closely  on  all  sides.  A  fall  would  have  been  hopelessly 
fatal,  and  yet  a  fall  was  an  almost  foregone  conclusion, 
for  the  ground  had  been  rendered  slippery  by  that  morn- 
ing's rain  and  the  trampling  it  had  just  been  sub- 
jected to. 

"You  brute!"  I  cried  to  a  gigantic  ruffian  who  had 
seized  the  bridle  of  my  dainty  thoroughbred.  "Drop 
that  instantly,  do  you  hear?" 

A  derisive  shout  of  laughter,  taken  up  by  the  crowd, 
and  a  volley  of  oaths  and  execrations  followed;  then 
some  one  yelled  out : 

"Tear  'er  out  of  'er  saddle,  but  don't  ye  go  for  to 
'urt  'er;  she's  a  plucked  'un,  damn  'er!" 

"  Hurt  me!  I'd  just  like  to  see  you  try!"  I  cried,  with 
unconscious  bravado,  for  my  own  anger  was  so  great 
that  I  scarcely  knew  what  I  was  about.  Looking  back 
for  a  second,  I  saw  my  poor  groom  dragged  from  his 
maddened  horse  and  odiously  beaten  and  buffeted. 
There  was  blood  on  his  face,  but  his  eyes  blazed  with 
rage,  and  he  was  making  a  brave  fight  in  his  wild  at- 
tempt to  rejoin  me.  This  was  the  last  straw  which 
broke  down  all  pretence  of  self-control  for  me.  "  I  saw 
red,"  as  we  say  in  French,  and,  raising  my  hunting- 
crop,  struck  so  violently  at  the  disgusting  faces  near- 
est to  me  that  the  press  gave  back  a  little,  and  profiting 
by  the  instant  of  stupefaction  which  followed,  I  used 
my  spur  to  such  excellent  purpose  that  Will-o '-the- Wisp, 

166 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

crazed  by  this  new  and  unjust  aggression,  plunged 
with  irresistible  force  into  the  wriggling,  seething  mass 
of  cowardly  canaille,  scattering  them  right  and  left. 
The  scorn  and  contempt  I  felt  for  them  must  have  shown 
on  my  face,  for  as  I  tightened  my  grip  on  the  reins  in  a 
futile  attempt  to  lead  my  bruised,  snorting,  struggling 
horse  to  where  the  groom  was  being  so  brutally  handled, 
I  heard  a  raucous,  liquor-soaked  voice  exclaiming : 

"  Don't  ye  go  for  to  despise  us,  ye  damned  haristo- 
crat,  or  we'll  murder  ye  and  yer  gilded  flunkey." 

I  shrugged  my  shoulders,  and  the  fluctuating  waves 
of  the  mob  having  fortunately  carried  me  within  reach 
of  my  servant,  I  called  out  to  him :  "  Catch  hold  of  my 
saddle-flaps  and  I'll  drag  you  out  of  this — quick!" 

With  two  blows,  delivered  in  a  masterly  fashion,  the 
groom  felled  the  two  men  nearest  to  him,  then  obeying 
orders,  he  held  on  with  one  hand,  using  the  other  one 
as  a  means  of  offence  and  defence  so  effectively  that 
our  united  efforts  actually  forced  a  passage  for  us, 
and  in  another  instant  we  were,  to  all  intents  and 
purposes,  out  of  danger,  thanks  also  to  the  fact  that 
a  squad  of  police  was  at  last  making  its  appearance 
at  a  swift  run  to  intercept  the  "  Roughs,"  whose  in- 
stinct of  self-preservation  was  demonstrated  by  a  gen- 
eral sauve  qui  pent. 

"Are  you  much  hurt,  Parker?"  I  asked  the  groom 
running  by  my  side,  "  or  can  you  keep  up  till  we  reach 
the  Park  gates?" 

"  'Course  I  can,  my  lady."  And  in  this  hour  of  peril, 
which  levels  all  differences  of  rank  and  makes  all  the 
world  akin,  the  brave  fellow  added :  "  Lord,  how  I'd  like 
to  shoot  those  brutes,  the  cowards,  to  want  to  strike  a 
lady  and  a  fine  'orse  like  this!  "  Evidently,  in  Parker's 
mind,  my  rank  and  Will-o '-the- Wisp's  beauty  should 
have  made  us  sacred.  I  smiled  grimly  at  the  com- 

167 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

munity  of  sentiment  between  Lord  George  and  the 
groom,  and  as  the  crowd  had  now  completely  dis- 
persed, I  adopted  a  more  peaceful  gait  and  looked  about 
me.  Ominous-looking  groups  were  gathered  around 
the  Marble  Arch  as  we  drew  near,  and  the  neighboring 
streets  overflowed  with  people,  while  the  measured  beat 
of  many  horses'  hoofs  falling  in  rapid  cadence  upon 
the  pavement  could  be  heard  even  above  the  roars  of 
the  people. 

"  There  is  going  to  be  a  rush;  that's  the  Guards  com- 
ing," I  said  to  Parker,  who  was  sponging  the  blood 
from  his  face  with  his  handkerchief.  "  It's  no  use  try- 
ing to  reach  the  square;  can't  we  get  into  Park  Lane 
by  the  back  way?" 

"Sure  we  can,  my  lady.  Gawd,  what  can  'ave  be- 
come of  my  'orse?"  he  added,  ruefully.  "A  hanimal 
as  there  is  but  few  like,  and  worth  more  than  that  'ole 
crowd  put  together!  Begging  your  ladyship's  pardon, 
but  did  the  blackguards  try  to  'urt  you,  too,  my  lady?" 

"  I  really  don't  know,"  I  replied,  smiling ;  "  to  tell  you 
the  truth,  Parker,  I  was  too  angry  to  notice  what  they 
tried  to  do,  or  left  undone." 

"  Well,  my  lady,  forgiving  my  boldness,  I  won't  soon 
forget  'ow  your  ladyship  laid  about  with  that  'ere 
whip.  It  was  a  grand  sight,  it  was,  and  a  nervy  one. 
I  do  'ope,  I  do,  that  the  soldiers  will  kill  the  'ole  pack 
of  them,"  with  which  all-embracing  malediction  the 
worthy  fellow  relapsed  into  a  silent  rage,  which  was 
sufficiently  expressed  upon  his  countenance  to  leave  no 
doubt  about  the  genuineness  of  his  philanthropic  inten- 
tions. 

The  crowds  were  thinning  a  little,  and  the  whole 
affray  would  very  likely  be  over  before  evening ;  also, 
we  were  near  home,  which  was  a  blessing,  for  our 
appearance  was  strange  and  disordered  enough  to  ex- 

168 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

plain  the  looks  of  utter  amazement  cast  at  us  by  the  foot- 
passengers  who  were  crossing  the  Park  with  a  haste 
denoting  general  perturbation  and  alarm. 

"  I  am  sorry  you  were  hurt,  Parker,  and  I  thank  you 
for  the  pluck  you  displayed,"  I  said,  as  I  dismounted 
at  the  back  door  of  my  house.  "Don't  worry  about 
your  horse;  he  will  have  been  rescued  by  the  police  or 
the  soldiers,  and  you  had  better  bathe  your  face  with 
hot  salt  and  water.  You  are  badly  bruised." 

"Thank  your  ladyship,  kindly,  it's  nothing  at  all; 
it's  only  the  'orse  I'm  worriting  about,"  replied  the  poor 
fellow,  who  presented  a  most  extraordinary  picture  with 
his  dishevelled  hair,  blood-stained  face,  torn  clothes, 
furious  expression,  and  blackened  eye. 

Truly,  that  morning's  work  was  not  very  pleasant, 
but,  of  course,  it  might  have  been  ever  so  much  worse; 
and  with  this  consoling  and  philosophical  reflection  I 
traversed  the  hall  and  ran  up-stairs  to  my  dressing- 
room,  where  I  exchanged  my  now  disreputable-looking 
habit  for  a  peignoir,  had  the  dust  washed  out  of  my 
hair,  and,  after  taking  my  bath,  got  ready  to  go  to 
Windsor,  whither  Fred  and  I  were  bound  that  after- 
noon whether  the  streets  were  passable  or  not. 

Nothing  was  left  of  the  agitation  of  the  morning,  as 
far  as  I  was  now  concerned,  and  I  entered  the  conser- 
vatory opening  into  my  own  rooms,  to  fuss  a  little  among 
my  flowers  while  waiting  for  my  father-in-law,  who  was 
coming  to  luncheon  previous  to  accompanying  us. 

Half  an  hour  later  Mohammed  announced  him,  and 
he  entered  hastily,  very  flushed  and  angry-looking,  and 
quite  breathless. 

"Why,  Pater,"  I  exclaimed,  in  surprise,  "what  is  the 
matter?" 

"Matter!  Everything  is  the  matter!  The  Social- 
ists are  having  it  all  their  own  way,  are  administer- 

169 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ing  a  couple  of  black  eyes  to  the  government,  and 
are  holding  meetings  all  over  the  place,  roaring  like 
wild  animals,  trampling  down  the  lawns,  and  prepar- 
ing, as  far  as  I  can  see,  to  sack  London,  by  wrecking 
carriages  and  breaking  windows.  It  is  a  mercy  that 
I  escaped  being  bonneted  on  my  way  here.  The  cab- 
inet is  in  such  a  funk  that  I  would  not  be  surprised 
if  it  brought  in  a  bill  for  universal  suffrage,  as  a  sop 
to  the 'Reds." 

I  laughed.  "My  dearest  Pater,"  I  said,  consolingly, 
"  I'm  awfully  sorry  that  you  should  have  been  bothered, 
too.  An  hour  ago  I  had  a  personal  encounter  with  your 
London  canaille,  who  pulled  Parker  out  of  his  saddle, 
and  threatened  to  treat  me  in  a  similar  way.  But  your 
mobs  do  not  seem  to  be  really  as  ill-natured  as  their 
threats  and  yells  would  lead  one  to  believe.  They  are 
hideous  to  look  at,  but  rather  too  beery  and  heavy  to 
accomplish  much — at  least,  that  is  my  judgment  of 
them.  They  are  brutes,  yes,  but  boastful  brutes  only, 
methinks." 

"  Good  God !  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that  you  were 
caught  in  that  nauseating  throng?"  cried  the  dear  old 
chap,  crimsoning  once  more  with  fury  and  indignation. 
"  If  such  scandalous  spectacles  are  allowed  in  London, 
the  government  deserves  that  all  decent  people  should 
withdraw  their  support.  Don't  talk  to  me  of  the  Lib- 
erals! Their  only  care  is  to  please  the  ratepayers, 
and  to  this  they  sacrifice  everything.  The  old  Whigs 
were  all  right,  but,  damn  it  all,  nothing  can  be  more 
different  from  them  than  their  successors !" 

"  Don't  be  cross,  Pater,"  I  replied,  laughing.  "  What 
on  earth  will  be  the  use  of  your  upsetting  yourself?  If 
you  could  do  anything  to  ameliorate  the  present  state 
of  affairs  it  would  be  different,  but,  as  matters  stand, 
you're  only  agitating  yourself  for  nothing.  Do  what 

170 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

we  like,  we  cannot  prevent  our  epoch  from  being  servile, 
coarse,  vulgar,  and  obsequious  —  that  is,  to  the  great 
unwashed,  of  whom  everybody  is  more  or  less  afraid! 
Huge,  blind,  uncontrollable  forces  are  rising  from  the 
oozing  mud  of  democracy,  driven  onwards  by  envy 
and  by  want  —  two  sorry  motives.  Pray  tell  me  what 
decent  people,  as  you  say,  can  do  against  such  a  com- 
bination?" 

"You  are  a  cool  young  lady,"  he  exclaimed,  with 
dawning  amusement.  "You  have  a  singular  way  of 
calming  down  my  patriotic  forebodings,  but  I  am  bound 
to  acknowledge  that  it  would  be  a  pleasure  to  follow 
your  dictates  if — " 

At  that  juncture  the  door  was  brusquely  thrown 
open  and  Fred  rushed  into  the  room,  with  so  per- 
turbed a  countenance  that  both  his  father  and  myself 
looked  at  him  in  surprise. 

"Is  what  I  hear  true,"  he  cried — "about  your  being 
nearly  killed  this  morning  by  the  mob?  Surely  it 
cannot  be  possible  that  you  should  have  been  so  im- 
prudent as  to  expose  yourself  to  ill-treatment  at  the 
hands  of  the  lunatics  who  are  even  now  being  charged 
down  Piccadilly  by  the  '  Blues '?" 

"  My  imprudence  was  quite  involuntary,  my  dearest 
boy,"  I  answered,  with  some  impatience,  "so  you  need 
not  glare  at  me  so  dramatically.  I  had  not  the  least  idea 
that  your  London  populace  was  so  irredeemably  brutal 
and  uncouth,  nor,  for  that  matter,  that  it  was  breaking 
out  into  drunken  explosions  to-day,  so  I  don't  think 
that  I  am  to  be  blamed." 

"  I  have  explained  a  thousand  times  to  you  that  Eng- 
land is  right  on  the  top  of  a  political  volcano,  and  that 
the  present  governmental  policy  is  to  appeal  to  the 
people,  instead  of  holding  them  in  check  with  an  iron 
hand,  as  you  no  doubt  would  have  them  do." 

171 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Well,  the  people  are  responding  to  that  appeal  in 
their  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  aren't  they?" 
I  said,  with  a  faint  sneer. 

"I  don't  see  why  you  are  joking,"  he  exclaimed, 
angrily.  "  Do  you  imagine  that  England  is  ripe  for  a 
democracy?" 

"Viz.,  Tennyson,"  I  murmured. 

'"And  all  submitted  to  a  people's  will  I* 

What  else,  if  you  please,  is   a  parliamentary  form  of 
government  based  upon?" 

"You  are  most  trying,  exasperating,  and  perverse 
this  morning ;  can  we  make  an  absolute  stand  against 
electoral  representation?"  he  retorted. 

"That  would  certainly  be  wiser  than  the  present 
plan  of  pandering  to  the  lower  orders.  To  rule  through 
and  by  the  multitude  is  leading  most  nations  to  final 
destruction,  in  my  humble  opinion." 

He  fairly  stamped  his  foot.  "What  other  weapons 
do  you  think  that  the  present  situation  demands,  save 
opportunism  and  flattery?  The  food  must  be  suited 
to  the  eater." 

"Oh,  of  course,  if  that  is  the  view  you  take  of  it,  then 
you  can  hardly  indulge  in  complaints  and  vitupera- 
tions. But  you  really  have  an  extraordinary  talent 
for  antithesis." 

"Why  will  you  exaggerate  things  so?  I  am  trying 
to  explain  what  is  easiest  felt  than  defined." 

"  Like  the  voice  of  the  oracle  of  Delphi,  yours  is  not 
always  infallible,  especially  when  you  speak  like  a 
demagogue." 

"A  demagogue  .  .  .  pshaw!  At  any  rate,  I  am  glad 
to  say  that  we  will  be  able  to  leave  this  abominable 
place  in  twenty-four  hours.  I  am  sick  of  it,"  he  said, 
hotly  and  irrelevantly. 

172 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  That  is  nice  for  me,"  muttered  Pater,  who  had  been 
listening  with  an  amused  smile  to  our  controversy. 

"You  old  darling/'  I  exclaimed,  slipping  my  arm 
around  his  neck,  "  don't  mind  Fred ;  he  has  never  for- 
given me  my  antiquated  Legitimist  politics,  and  he 
likes  nothing  better  than  to  split  straws  and  to  quarrel 
with  words,  as  you  very  well  know.  Moreover,  luncheon 
is  ready/'  I  added,  as  the  butler  pronounced  the  con- 
secrated, "  Miladi  est  servie,"  and  threw  wide  the  door 
leading  to  the  hall.  "  You  see,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
London  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Red  revolutionists,  and 
possibly  doomed  to  fire,  sword,  and  carnage,  we  know 
our  duties  to  our  internal  economy  too  well  to  let  our 
meals  wait  for  five  minutes  on  account  of  such  trifling 
incidents." 

When,  later  on,  we  drove  to  the  station,  the  streets  were 
nearly  clear,  but  as  I  glanced  at  the  wrecked  parterres 
of  the  Park,  which  a  sudden  squall  of  wind  and  rain  were 
transforming  into  beds  of  mud  and  d6bris,  and  at  the 
gloomy  thoroughfares  we  were  traversing,  which  looked 
like  a  smirched  and  smudged  charcoal-drawing  under 
the  lowering  gray  sky,  I  sympathized  with  poor  Fred's 
feeling  of  relief,  release,  and  deliverance  at  the  prospect 
of  "getting  away"  from  it  all.  Never  had  I  been  so 
sensible  of  the  extreme  ugliness,  the  crowded  monotony, 
and  the  lamentably  uninviting  aspect  of  that  wealthiest 
of  all  cities,  and  instinctively  I  patted  my  lord's  hand. 

"Hello,  Pussy,  what's  up?  Want  me  to  buy  you 
some  orchids?"  he  exclaimed,  surprised. 

We  were  passing  before  a  florist's  shop,  from  which 
the  shutters,  prudently  put  up  in  the  morning  for  fear 
of  the  people's  unwelcome  "response,"  were  now  being 
removed,  exposing  to  view  some  magnificent  mauve 
catleyas,  arranged,  however,  with  that  singular  lack 
of  taste  and  artistic  sense  common  to  all  English  shop- 

173 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

windows,  whether  they  contain  jewels,  flowers,  gloves, 
or  crockery. 

"No,  indeed,"  I  replied,  laughing.  "Thanks  for 
your  good  intentions.  I  was  merely  sorry  for  having 
failed  to  completely  enter  into  your  feelings  on  the  sub- 
ject of  your  native  city.  My!  but  it  is  ugly!" 

Pater  chuckled.  "So,"  he  said — "so  you,  too,  are 
beginning  to  feel  the  dreariness  and  depression  which 
London  produces  on  all  sensitive  natures.  It  is  dis- 
couraging to  think  that  we  who  are  the  first  nation  in 
the  world — I  beg  your  pardon,  my  dear,  it's  a  matter 
of  habit  for  me  to  say  so — live  in  gloom,  fogs,  rain,  and 
unspeakably  malodorous  filth,  and  that  we  spoil  every- 
thing we  touch  with  our  smoke  and  steam  and  general 
oiliness." 

"Well,  but  you  understand  comfort  better  than  any 
other  people,"  I  argued,  moved  by  a  feeling  of  fairness 
and  justice  towards  my  husband's  country.  "Think 
of  your  many  contrivances  for  making  a  home  what 
it  should  be,  of  your  excellent  servants,  who  under- 
stand the  art  of  sparing  one  even  the  trouble  to  think, 
of  your  carefully  aired  and  cut  newspapers — a  great 
weakness  with  the  dear  man — and  especially  of  your 
wholly  admirable  country  houses,  with  their  unex- 
celled lawns  and  timber  and  luxuriant  verdure." 

"I  grant  you  that  the  country  is  nice,"  he  replied, 
descending  from  the  carriage,  for  we  had  reached  the 
station  steps,  "  but,  unfortunately,  we  cannot  live  there 
all  the  year  round." 

The  majestic  pile  of  Windsor  Castle  was  illumined 
by  the  red  glare  of  the  setting  sun  as  we  drove  up  the 
hill  leading  to  it,  and  the  Italian  gardens  looked  so 
splendid  and  yet  so  homelike  that  I  could  not  repress 
an  exclamation  of  delight.  Near  at  hand  the  woods 
of  the  great  Park  shut  off  the  horizon,  and  between 

i74 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

lay  deep  emerald  lawns,  rose -walks,  flower -laden 
terraces,  and  carpets  of  costly  plants  stretching  their 
glowing  colors  under  the  pale -blue  evening  haze 
rising  from  the  lake.  The  whole  scene  had  some- 
thing precious  and  pastoral,  in  spite  of  its  grandeur 
and  gorgeousness,  which  involuntarily  made  me  think 
of  the  Trouvdre's : 

"  Sus  I  debout  I    Aliens  voir  1'herbelette  perleuse. 
Et  votre  beau  rosier  de  boutons  couronn6, 
Et  vos  oeillets  mignons,  auxquels  avez  donne1, 
Hier  au  soir  eau  claire  d'une  main  si  mignonne." 

It  would  have  been  such  an  ideal  background  for  the 
Fabliaux  and  the  Romaunts.  Ah,  yes,  a  place  to  dream 
a  life  away  in,  and  die  in  contentedly,  with  one's  eyes 
gazing  to  the  last  at  that  delicious  rolling  of  hill  and 
dale,  that  expanse  of  woodland  and  pasture  and  stream, 
which  seems  but  the  extension  of  the  domain  itself. 

It  was  a  pity  to  think  how  that  fair  country  of  Eng- 
land was  being  more  and  more  Germanized  by  the 
Crown,  and  greatly  did  I  wish  that  I  could  have  seen 
Britain  in  the  olden  days  when  it  belonged  to  itself, 
and  must  have  been  so  beautiful  in  its  unshackled  free- 
dom and  its  peaceful,  lovely  sylvan  scenery. 

On  the  morrow  we  once  more  turned  our  faces  towards 
Egypt,  that  paradise  of  palm -groves,  banana -plants, 
and  tamarind  -  trees,  filled  with  the  odor  of  tropical 
flowers,  where  fragrance  and  light  and  heat  and  ever- 
changing  color,  and  the  sweet,  shrill  notes  of  birds 
among  the  white  bells  of  the  datura  are  blent  in  one 
delicious  harmony,  gorgeous  and  fugitive — like  the 
spirit  of  Heaven  itself.  As  we  passed  through  the 
luxuriant  orchards  of  northern  France,  now  in  full 
bloom  and  looking  like  a  sea  of  faintly  rose  foam,  with 
low-roofed  cottages  half  drowned  in  its  fragrant  bil- 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

lows,  and  saw  the  fair  landscape  with  its  slender  old 
church-spires  raising  proudly  towards  the  clouds  their 
gilded  crosses,  its  countless  towers,  chateaux,  farm- 
houses, and  picturesque,  moss-grown  mills  peeping 
through  interlacing  branches,  I  sighed  a  little,  partly 
from  fatigue  and  partly  from  regret,  but — "Bah!" 
thought  I,  we  shall  return  there  for  good  some  day,  and 
live  out  the  rest  of  our  lives  'en  plantant  nos  choux. 
In  the  meanwhile  there  is  work  to  do  that  must  be 
done,  so,  "  Avant i,  signore!"  as  the  Italian  pilot  had 
cried  invariably,  when  going  on  duty  off  Naples  in  my 
yachting  days. 

We  had  had  a  pleasant  though  almost  expected  sur- 
prise, by-the-way,  which  I  had  nearly  forgotten  to  men- 
tion, when  examining  at  leisure  the  famous  old  guineas 
coming  from  the  bed-rock  of  Tewfik  Khedive's  treasure 
chamber,  for  over  half  of  them  proved  to  be  such  old 
Georges,  Cromwellian  pieces,  and  Jacobuses  as  would 
have  gladdened  the  heart  of  a  numismatist.  I  selected 
a  certain  number  of  them  as  souvenirs  of  this  curious 
incident,  and  Fred  disposed  of  the  others  in  so  advan- 
tageous a  fashion  that  he  felt  quite  elated,  and  de- 
clared he  would  greet  Tewfik  on  our  return  with  extra 
warmth — a  futile  and  even  unkind  thing  to  do  in  Cairo 
at  the  beginning  of  summer,  as  I  informed  him. 

Mohammed  was  left  behind,  much  to  my  regret,  for 
the  lad  was  invaluable  and  utterly  trustworthy.  De- 
spite the  duskiness  of  his  skin,  his  remarkable  come- 
liness, melting,  almond-shaped  eyes,  delicate  features, 
and  dazzling  teeth  had  worked  havoc  with  the  heart 
of  a  portly  widow  fifteen  years  his  senior,  but  en- 
dowed- with  the  goods  of  this  world  to  the  tune  of 
five  hundred  pounds  a  year.  The  ypung  wretch  had. 
not  only  married  her,  but  had  gone  to  live  in  Camber- 
well  in  a  "desirable  semi-detached  villa" — (see  ad- 

176 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

vertisements).  Indeed,  a  few  days  before  our  depart- 
ure he  had  made  a  clean  breast  of  his  matrimonial 
adventure  to  me,  confessing  that  the  lady  had  been 
attached  to  him  ever  since  his  first  trip  with  us  to  Eng- 
land, a  year  before,  and  that  this  time  she  had  insisted 
upon  marrying  him. 

"The  kindnesses  which  Your  Magnificence  has 
shown  to  her  slave  are  as  countless  as  the  dates  on  the 
trees  of  my  country,"  he  had  said  to  me,  with  the  usual 
emphasis  and  hyperbole  of  his  race,  "and  when  the 
heralds  of  Allah  will  shout  forth  at  the  last  the  good 
deeds  of  the  great  people  of  the  earth,  first  of  all  they 
will  proclaim  those  of  Your  Loftiness,  on  whose  name 
be  peace ;  but  Allah  must  fear  that  no  gifts  within  his 
power  to  bestow  can  be  great  enough  to  reward  her, 
nor  can  Mohammed,  her  slave  and  servant,  find  words 
to  tell  the  gratitude  that  fills  his  soul,  because  his 
Protectress  has  been  like  a  mother  to  him,  though  she 
is  young  and  of  surpassing  beauty,  like  unto  a  jewel 
of  great  price.  Yet  he  must  now  leave  her,  and  his 
heart,  therefore,  is  sore  and  heavy  within  him." 

There  he  stood  in  all  the  majesty  of  his  snowy  muslin 
robes,  azure-and-silver  sash,  amaranth  fez,  and  yel- 
low babouches,  looking  more  like  an  enamelled  bronze 
statue  than  a  mortal  man,  his  slim,  dusky  hands  crossed 
on  his  chest,  and  his  eyes  lowered  in  token  of  profound 
respect;  truly  the  very  embodiment  of  that  far  Orient 
which  remains  always  more  or  less  to  us  a  shadowy 
and  gorgeous  panorama  of  mystery,  be  we  ever  so  well 
acquainted  with  the  revers  de  la  medaille  as  exempli- 
fied by  saddle-galled  donkeys,  ragged,  untidy  fellaheen, 
savage  pariah  dogs,  swooping  carrion-birds,  cholera, 
khamsins,  bovine  pest,  and  fly-tortured  babies,  not  to 
mention  the  rest. 

"Mohammed,"  I  said,  breaking  into  the  rapid  but 
ii  i77 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

broken  stream  of  his  parlance,  and  borrowing  some- 
thing of  his  own  manner  of  speech,  "  my  heart,  too,  is 
heavy  and  sore  within  me  to  think  that  thou,  Mohammed 
my  son,  hast  decided  to  sell  thyself  for  a  mess  of  pot- 
tage, as  it  were,  that  thy  spirit  hath  grown  soft  within 
thee,  like  melting  fat,  and  that  thou  wouldst  abandon 
the  land  of  thy  fathers  to  dwell  f orevermore  amid  smoke 
and  darkness.  Wisely  was  it  written  by  the  prophet, 
'Let  him  that  desireth  oblivion  confer  benefits/  for  I 
see  now  that  thou  wilt  let  me  go  back  without  thee  to 
the  land  of  the  white  datura  flower,  whence  thou  earnest 
with  me,  because  an  infidel  woman  hath  looked  upon 
thee  with  favor." 

Poor  Mohammed  looked  positively  crushed  beneath 
the  weight  of  this  magniloquent  harangue,  and  the 
spirit  of  mischief  prompting  me,  I  continued : 

"Loyalty  to  one's  own  people  and  to  one's  country 
and  creed  is  a  virtue  to  be  rewarded  with  fine  gold,  my 
son  Mohammed.  Forget  thou  not  this!  To  forget  is 
very  sinful!" 

"Know,  O  most  glorious  and  best  of  mankind,  who 
art  of  noble  ancestors  and  gentle  disposition,  that  were 
I  to  serve  thee  for  seven  times  one  thousand  years, 
regarding  nothing  else  as  of  importance,  I  could  not 
requite  thee,  but  till  I  have  regained  thy  favor  and 
gained  thy  pardon,  O  Lady  of  kind  and  wise  conduct, 
I  shall  know  no  rest." 

The  situation  was  rapidly  assuming  threatening 
possibilities,  and  I  began  to  repent  my  unfortunate 
pleasantry.  Seeing  that  I  remained  silent,  my  attend- 
ant salaamed  low  and  continued : 

"  I  must  leave  thee  for  a  season.  May  thy  days  be 
fortunate,  and  the  noses  of  thine  enemies  be  rubbed 
thoroughly  in  the  dust.  Know  this,  0  most  brilliant 
of  stars,  that  wheresoever  I  may  wander  I  shall  never 

178 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

cease  to  study  the  memory  of  thy  virtues,  O  thou  of 
wisdom  and  eloquence." 

"  That  is  as  it  may  be,  Mohammed/'  I  replied,  in 
gloomy  tones,  "  but  remember  that  he  who  adventureth 
upon  matrimony  is  as  one  who  gropeth  with  his  hand 
after  the  one  eel  in  a  nest  of  serpents.  So  doth  the  good 
old  proverb  say.  Pray  that  thine  may  be  the  eel." 

"Be  not  angered  with  thy  slave,  high-born  One, 
and  suffer  me  to  depart  in  peace.  May  Allah  never 
deprive  thy  friends  of  thy  magnanimous  presence, 
and  may  thy  head  long  survive,  which  will  be  far  below 
thy  deserts,  for  thou  art  of  a  truth  more  beautiful  to 
behold  than  the  full  moon,  and  greater  than  all  the 
sages." 

Here  I  decided  that  the  time  had  really  come  to  stem 
this  torrent  of  Oriental  adulation,  and  with  a  gracious 
smile  I  said,  impressively : 

"Thou  speakest  the  truth,  for  surely  my  benevo- 
lence towards  thee  hath  no  bounds,  and  I  can  deny 
thee  nothing.  Therefore  do  I  bid  thee  farewell.  May 
Allah  bring  thee  all  thy  desires.  Let  not  thy  heart  be 
troubled,  for  none  can  alter  what  is  predestined." 

Mohammed,  like  all  Orientals,  was  impervious  to 
irony,  which  was  a  mercy,  and  with  a  last,  high-sound- 
ing sentence,  to  the  effect  that  no  honor  and  advance- 
ment could  ever  be  in  excess  of  my  deserts,  he  departed, 
leaving  me,  in  spite  of  my  regret  at  losing  an  excellent 
servant,  almost  convulsed  with  laughter  at  the  extrav- 
agant tenor  of  our  late  conversation. 

Rome  has  always  been  a  favorite  city  of  mine,  and  I 
was  glad  that  it  was  necessary  for  us  to  spend  a  few 
days  there  before  rushing  on  towards  our  final  desti- 
nation. I  greeted  with  enthusiasm  the  green  Cam- 
pagna,  the  purple  heights  of  Rocca  di  Papa,  and  the 
quaint  antique  city  itself,  so  different  from  any  other 

179 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

in  the  world.  Rome  crowning  its  seven  hills,  with  its 
cypress  woods  and  olive  groves  warm  in  the  light  of 
the  western  sun,  and  facing  the  amethyst  and  pearl 
lines  of  the  mountains,  where  reign  the  majestic  stone- 
pines  with  tall,  rosy  heather  at  their  feet,  is  a  sight 
never  to  be  forgotten  as  one  approaches  it. 

On  the  night  of  our  arrival  we  went  to  a  reception  at 

the  Palazzo  F e.  We  came  rather  late,  and  found, 

in  spite  of  the  advanced  season,  that  nearly  every  one 
present  was  an  acquaintance  or  a  friend. 

The  guests  had  assembled  in  the  long  gallery,  with 
its  many  tall  windows  opening  upon  the  gardens 
illuminated  to  the  very  edge  of  the  Tiber.  The  walls 
were  covered  with  unique  Gobelins  and  lined  with  art 
treasures  just  as  unique  —  Raphaels  and  Caraccios, 
Murillos  and  Corregios,  and  glorious  statues  which 
had  been  there  ever  since  the  time  when  they  had 
left  the  hands  of  the  great  masters  who  had  begotten 
them.  Distant  music  filled  the  beautiful  place  with 
softened  echoes,  and  did  not  disturb  the  murmur  of  con- 
versation carried  on  in  tones  of  well-bred  modulation. 

Throughout  that  vast  piano  nobile  all  was  majestic, 
cool,  and  redolent  of  the  delicious  fragrance  coming  in 
from  the  great  eucalypti  without,  and  of  the  discreet  per- 
fumes wafted  on  the  ambient  air  by  lace  and  feather  fans. 

Almost  the  first  person  with  whom  I  conversed  was 
that  kind-hearted,  delightful,  and  witty  prelate,  Cardi- 
nal S i,  who  was  at  that  time  Prefect  of  the  Prop- 
aganda, and  was  better  known  by  the  appellation  of 
"  The  Red  Pope  "  than  by  any  other,  and  who  controlled 
all  the  enormous  ecclesiastical  revenues  of  the  non- 
Catholic  countries  of  the  civilized  world.  Very  stout, 
but  with  delicate,  strong  features,  a  large,  humorous 
mouth,  and  wonderful  eyes  literally  beaming  with 
kindness,  a  noble  brow,  and  a  fascinating  smile,  he 

180 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

impressed  one  as  being  half  scholar  and  half  saint,  and 
withal  a  thorough  grand  seigneur,  with  a  fondness  for 
gentle  mirth  and  the  companionship  of  distinguished 
people.  Working  as  hard — and  harder,  too — than  any 
parish  priest,  His  Eminence  led  the  life  of  an  anchorite, 
in  a  shabby  little  suite  of  carpetless  and  curtainless 
rooms  on  the  top  floor  of  the  old  Propaganda  palace, 
and  his  well-worn  cassocks,  shining  with  the  lustre 
of  hard  service,  were  characteristic  of  a  man  whose 
unselfishness  and  charity  were  proverbial.  Early 
and  late,  once  the  absorbing  duties  of  his  high  office 
accomplished,  this  Prince  of  the  Church  labored  for 
the  poor  and  suffering.  No  slum  was  too  fetid — and 
Heaven  only  knows  how  fetid  the  Roman  slums  south 
of  the  Ghetto  are — for  the  Cardinal's  personal  visita- 
tion upon  errands  of  mercy.  Often  he  returned  from 
them  in  the  vague,  dismal  twilight  of  early  morning, 
wan,  tired,  hungry,  thirsty,  and  foot-sore,  but  con- 
tent with  his  night's  labors,  and  with  a  bright  and 
serene  countenance.  His  high  rank  was  nothing  to 
him,  and  it  was  difficult  to  realize  that  he  possessed  it, 
so  simple  were  his  ways,  so  modest  his  manner,  so 
more  than  plain  his  attire,  save  for  the  gleam  of  the 
great  ruby  set  in  his  archiepiscopal  ring,  or  the  bright- 
ness— mellowed  by  use — of  his  silken  sash  and  his  old 
black  soutane's  narrow  scarlet  passe- poils.  Doubts 
of  any  sort  as  to  what  duty  was  never  assailed  him. 
His  deep  faith  was  as  pure  and  true  as  the  sun  shining 
in  the  heavens,  and  as  single-hearted  and  unswerving 
as  were  his  perseverance  and  courage.  I  had  a  deep 
and  affectionate  reverence  for  that  dear  old  man,  whose 
very  presence  was  like  a  benediction,  and  was  greatly 
pleased,  too,  to  see  him  for  once  in  all  the  splendor  of 
his  scarlet  robes,  which  set  off  his  venerable  countenance 
beautifully. 

181 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

We  stood  by  one  of  the  open  windows,  talking  quietly 
of  old  times  and  of  mutual  friends,  until  we  were  joined 
by  another  almost  equally  interesting  personage,  Prince 

Marc  C a,  once  chief  of  Queen  Marguerite's 

Household,  but  as  on  the  death  of  his  father,  the  prin- 
cipal dignitary  of  the  Pontifical  Court,  he  had  inherited 
the  charge  of  Prince  assistant  of  the  Holy  Seat,  he 
could,  of  course,  not  remain  with  the  Queen,  and  after 
handing  in  his  resignation  never  again  crossed  the 
threshold  of  the  Quirinal.  The  unutterable  sadness  of 
his  eyes,  the  melancholy  of  his  smile,  were  a  perpetual 
reminder  of  the  ghastly  tragedy  which  had  broken 
both  his  spirit  and  his  heart.  The  days  were  not  yet 
far  away  when  he  had  been  one  of  the  happiest  men  in 
the  world,  living  in  his  wonderful  Roman  palace,  with 
his  beautiful  and  beloved  young  wife  and  his  two  little 
daughters,  a  life  of  luxurious  repose  and  perpetual  en- 
chantment. The  Princess,  a  singularly  fascinating 
woman  with  a  delicate,  patrician  head,  as  perfect  as 
the  graceful  body  which  supported  it,  was  much  ad- 
mired and  courted.  Among  the  men  who  paid  her  the 
most  attention  was  the  young  Marquis  dell  G  .  .  .  .  i, 
grandson  of  a  Bonaparte  prince  and  nephew  of  the 
celebrated  Cardinal  of  that  ilk.  The  love  which  he 
conceived  for  the  wife  of  his  friend  was  a  whirlwind 
of  passion  so  violent  that  it  transformed  his  whole 
existence.  However,  he  never  swerved  from  the  paths 
of  honesty,  and  never  declared  himself  to  Donna  Vit- 
toria — as  she  used  to  be  called — but  nevetheless  gos- 
sip grew  rife  around  them,  declaring  that  the  guiltless- 
ness of  those  two  was  a  thing  not  to  be  believed  for  an 
instant,  and  gradually  but  surely  the  rumor  of  their 
supposed  crime  grew  in  volume  until  it  reached  the  ears 
of  the  last  person  usually  informed  of  such  scandals — 
namely,  the  husband. 

182 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

Prince  Marc  knew  his  wife  too  well  to  believe  a  word 
against  her,  but  versed  in  the  ways  of  the  world,  and 
knowing  its  cruelties,  he  spoke  frankly  and  kindly 
to  his  friend  about  the  odious  fashion  in  which  the 
woman  whom  they  both  loved  was  talked  about,  and 
asked  him  in  all  fairness  to  discontinue  his  visits  and 
attentions.  Stricken  to  the  heart,  and  horrified  beyond 
expression  at  having  unwittingly  compromised  her, 
the  young  man  went  home,  and,  in  despair,  blew  out 
his  brains,  leaving  behind  him  a  letter  of  poignant 
regret  and  touching  apology  addressed  to  Donna  Vit- 
toria,  together  with  a  velvet  Serin  containing  a  great 
butterfly  of  rubies,  sapphires,  and  emeralds,  transfixed 
by  a  diamond  stiletto — a  most  cherished  possession, 
which  he  had  inherited  from  his  mother. 

The  Princess  was  at  that  time  far  from  strong,  and 
the  shock  was  so  overpowering  that  it  robbed  her  of 
her  reason.  Her  husband's  grief  was  terrible,  and  he 
devoted  all  his  time  to  her,  nursing  and  humoring  her 
with  an  abnegation  seldom  met  with,  and  making  her 
his  only  care.  Indeed,  he  seldom  left  her,  excepting 
when  called  away  by  the  duties  of  his  great  office,  and 
withdrew  almost  completely  from  that  society  which 
had  held  for  him  but  a  bundle  of  rods. 

I  was,  therefore,  surprised  to  meet  him  at  the  Palazzo 

F e,  until  he  explained  that  he  was  in  charge 

of  one  of  the  foreign  princes  present  that  night.  An 
intense  pity  always  filled  my  heart  when  I  met  this 
victim  of  one  of  society's  greatest  blunders.  Society, 
unfortunately,  does  not  discriminate,  but  merely  lays 
down  a  few  broad  lines,  between  which  it  corrals  two 
sets  of  people,  those  of  whom  it  approves  and  those  of 
whom  it  does  not,  regardless  of  their  sins  or  virtues. 
Can  anything  be  more  unfair?  Indeed,  in  my  humble 
opinion,  society  in  any  and  every  clime  is  always,  even 

183 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

when  at  its  best,  something  too  poor  for  heaven  and 
too  pale  for  hell! 

Next  day  we  dined  with  Donna  Laura  M i, 

the  only  woman  in  Europe  who  could  be  said  to 
have  a  salon — in  the  full  acceptation  of  the  word. 
I  have  seldom  met  a  shrewder,  cleverer,  or  more  fasci- 
nating personality  (nor  do  I  believe  that  many  exist) 
than  the  still  comely  widow  of  the  finest  statesman 
Italy  has  ever  known. 

A  woman  of  the  world  to  the  tips  of  her  dainty  fingers, 
she  was,  nevertheless,  a  quick-witted  and  sagacious  pol- 
itician, knew  everybody  worth  knowing,  was  a  great 
friend  of  Bismarck,  Gortschakow,  e  tutti  quanti,  as  far 
as  great  statesmen  were  concerned — calling  them  all 
indiscriminately  by  their  Christian  names — and  was  a 
power  in  many  lands. 

Her  uncle,  the  famous  Cardinal  A ....  n,  used  to  say 
of  her  that  she  was  the  cleverest  diplomat  he  had  ever 
met,  and  did  his  level  best  when  she  was  still  a  very 

young  girl  to  marry  her  to  Lord  G e,  the 

enormously  wealthy  British  statesman.  She,  how- 
ever, preferred  to  this  great  personage,  and  to  the  lofty 
position  he  offered  her,  the  exceedingly  good-looking 
Sicilian  Prince  of  C e,  who,  after  a  compar- 
atively short  time  of  more  than  questionable  connu- 
bial bliss,  suddenly  went  insane  and  died  in  a  lunatic 
asylum,  leaving  her  with  two  small  children  and  very 
little  money.  She  was  not  inconsolable,  however,  and 
soon  married  Victor  Emmanuers  favorite  Prime-Min- 
ister, Signor  M i,  who  literally  adored  her, 

and  proved  a  model  step-father  to  her  little  ones. 

Her  daughter,  who  was  surpassingly  lovely,  became 

at  the  age  of  sixteen  the  wife  of  Count  D f, 

a  very  wealthy,  cold,  and  rather  unsympathetic  Prus- 
sian, whose  crowning  sin  was  to  abhor  music.  This 

184 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

lack  of  appreciation  on  his  part  for  the  delightful  har- 
monies evoked  from  the  pianoforte  by  his  charming 
little  wife  proved  his  final  undoing,  for  while  represent- 
ing his  country  at  Dresden,  his  first  secretary  of  em- 
bassy, Count  B  .  .  .  w,  who  happened  to  be  quite  as 
music-mad  as  the  young  Countess,  spent  most  of  his 
time  playing  duets  with  her.  Life  became  soon  unbear- 
able for  the  one  without  the  other,  and  in  order  to  be 
able  to  continue  throughout  its  course  an  eternal  duet, 
they  eloped  one  fine  morning,  leaving  the  man  "not 
moved  by  concert  of  sweet  sounds  "  desolate,  but  too 
proud  and  too  icy  to  acknowledge  it  by  anything  but 
immediate  steps  for  a  divorce. 

Happily  for  the  Countess,  the  Iron  Chancellor  of 
the  German  Empire  was  at  that  time  very  anxious  to 
materialize  the  Triple  Alliance,  and,  naturally  eager  to 
please  Signer  M i,  he  talked  his  aged  sover- 
eign, kind-hearted  Emperor  William,  into  overlooking 
Count  B . . .  w's  and  Countess  D f 's  runaway  mar- 
riage— a  ceremony  which  had  been  hurriedly  performed 
as  soon  as  the  divorce  freeing  her  had  been  granted. 

Indeed,  after  a  very  short  period  of  diplomatic  dis- 
grace, the  secretary  of  embassy  was  sent  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, where  his  own  and  his  wife's  magnificent  mu- 
sical talent  caused  them  speedily  to  become  personae 
gratissimae  with  the  Czarina. 

From  Petersburg  Count  B . . .  w  was  sent  to  Bucha- 
rest, and  then  to  Rome,  the  amazing  rapidity  with  which 
he  climbed  the  diplomatic  ladder  being  but  another 
example  of  the  lamentable  fact  that  virtue  is  not  always 
the  only  excellence  which  calls  for  a  reward.  Of  course, 
this  all  belongs  to  the  history  of  some  years  ago,  but 
at  a  much  more  recent  date,  when  Count  B . . .  w  was 
finally  appointed  Chancellor  of  the  German  Empire, 

thus  becoming  the  immediate  chief  of  Count  D f ,  his 

185 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

wife's  divorced  husband,  who  was  still  vegetating  on 
the  banks  of  the  Elbe,  inextinguishable  if  covert  laugh- 
ter rippled  throughout  Europe,  and  those  who  were  on 
the  inside  track  realized  with  renewed  admiration  the 
amazing  cleverness  and  savoir-faire  of  Donna  Laura 

M i,  for  it  is  certainly  more  to  her  than  to 

any  one  else  that  her  recreant  little  daughter  owes 
the  masterly  unravelling  of  her  tangled  matrimonial 
skeins. 

On  the  evening  to  which  I  refer  we  met  at  the  Signora's 
hospitable  house  several  more  of  our  old  acquaint- 
ances, first  and  foremost,  His  Excellency  the  German 
Ambassador  to  the  Quirinal,  nicknamed  by  his  own 
irreverent  subordinates  "  Xante  K  .  .  . .  e/'  and  by  the 
world  in  general  "  Bismarck's  David,"  having  won  his 
promotion  in  the  service  by  soothing  the  irritable  temper 
of  that  illustrious  statesman  when  he  was  his  secretary 
by  playing  Chopin  and  Liszt  to  him  with  uncommon 
maestria.  Queen  Marguerite,  herself  an  excellent  musi- 
cian, was  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  "  Tante  K . . . .  e," 
and  was  never  tired  of  playing  classical  music  with  him 
on  two  pianos.  Alas,  poor  David!  He,  too,  was  un- 
done later  on  by  melody,  for,  falling  desperately  in 
love  with  a  highly  gifted  singer — until  then  not  par- 
ticularly famous,  but  in  whom  he  imagined  that  he 
discovered  the  feu  sacre  of  true  genius — he  married  her, 
and  this  was  the  end  of  his  career  both  as  a  diplomat 
and  a  courtier. 

When  I  think  of  him  as  I  saw  him  for  the  last  time  on 
that  occasion,  with  his  fat,  square-tipped  fingers  lightly 

caressing  the  keys  of  Donna  M i's  sonorous 

piano  de  concert,  and  his  round,  German  face  upturned 
towards  the  frescoed  ceiling  in  rapt  enjoyment  of  his 
own  superb  execution,  I  cannot  refrain  from  offering 
a  little  sigh  to  the  memory  of  that  jovial  and  good- 

186 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

natured  disciple  of  St.  Cecilia  who  made  me  spend  so 
many  delightful  hours  in  days  of  long  ago,  when  the 
spirit  of  music  entered  his  soul. 

On  the  morning  of  our  departure  I  was  honored  by 
a  private  audience  from  the  Holy  Father,  but  as  soon 
as  I  had  removed  the  black  dress  and  lace  mantilla 
which  are  de  rigueur  at  the  Vatican,  and  slipped  into 
my  travelling-dress,  it  was  time  to  be  off  again.  On 
we  sped  out  of  the  Eternal  City,  which  looked  its  best 
with  the  sun  shining  brightly  on  the  Volscian  Hills, 
the  line  of  the  Leonessa,  and  the  purple  heights  of 
the  Sabine  Mountains,  glowing  like  heaped -up  sap- 
phires and  amethysts.  There  was  still  a  little  snow 
on  the  summit  of  Monte  Gennaro,  for  the  maize  and 
the  corn  were  not  yet  ripe  in  the  fertile  Roman 
plains,  rosy-red  with  countless  poppies.  At  last  the 
gilded  cross  of  St.  Peter's  disappeared  behind  the  fleecy 
cloud-world,  and  we  relied  with  increased  speed  towards 
Brindisi,  the  good  ship  Mongolia,  and  the  many  in- 
trigues and  troubles  of  His  Highness  Tewfik  Khedive. 

Once  again  we  landed  at  Port  Sai'd  amid  a  shrieking, 
yelling,  struggling  mob  of  dusty  porters  fighting  for  the 
privilege  of  carrying  our  hand-luggage,  and,  escorted 
by  that  same  unavoidable  rabble  rout  of  chattering  and 
grinning  human  monkeys  which  is  ever  about  one  in 
Egypt,  we  bent  our  steps  towards  the  Hdtel  des  Stran- 
gers, the  only  half-way  possible  one  then.  We  had 
decided  to  charter  a  steam-launch  to  take  us  through 
the  Suez  Canal  to  Ismailia,  and  shortly  after  midnight 
we  embarked  and  were  soon  splashing  merrily  out  of 
the  harbor  towards  de  Lesseps's  great  waterway. 

Within  the  velvety  shadow  extending  between  the 
steep  banks  of  the  canal  our  little  craft  sped  on  famously, 
its  diminutive  funnel  vomiting  torrents  of  smoke,  which 
gleamed  silvery  white  where  the  moon-beams  touched 

187 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

it  far  above  us  and  turned  it  into  fairy-like  clouds. 
Gradually  Dame  Luna's  magic-rays  invaded  the  sombre 
area  of  the  canal  itself,  until  the  small  steamer  on  its 
rippling  waters  shone  like  an  overgrown  metal  toy  in 
that  admirable  Egyptian  luminosity,  which  I  hailed 
like  an  old  friend.  I  drank  in  the  splendor  of  that  night 
in  long,  thirsty  draughts,  and  leaving  Fred  to  slumber 
in  the  liliputian  cabin  which  he  very  nearly  filled 
with  his  six-foot  something  of  length,  I  sat  on  deck 
watching  the  vast  and  shadowy  desert  wastes  on  both 
sides  of  the  way,  unbroken  save  by  an  occasional  thicket 
of  yellow-tufted  mimosa  or  a  slumbering  file  of  camels, 
lying  like  a  succession  of  immense,  conical  ant-heaps 
on  the  orange-hued  sand.  At  sunrise  we  sighted  Is- 
mailia,  nestling  in  a  leafy  bower  of  acacia,  fig,  and 
carob  trees  on  the  edge  of  its  beautiful  lake,  and  I  could 
have  shouted  for  joy,  so  exquisite  was  the  view  before 
me.  The  glassy  surface  of  the  water,  just  tinted  with 
shimmering  rose,  and  shrouded  here  and  there  with 
pearl-hued  vapors,  was  streaked  with  long  flights  of 
newly  awakened  birds  hurrying  out  on  their  daily 
fishing  expeditions,  and  on  the  bank,  towards  which 
we  were  gliding  rapidly,  great,  blue  herons  and  pink 
flamingoes  rose  lazily  from  the  feathery  reeds  where 
they  rested,  craning  their  dainty  necks  to  watch  us  as 
we  passed,  disturbing  with  our  fanlike  wake  the  quiet 
of  that  mirror-like  surface  which  reflected  their  brightly 
plumed  selves. 

We  arrived  tired,  it  is  true,  but  safe  and  sound  at 
Cairo,  and  I  was  just  in  time  to  witness  on  the  very 
morrow  of  my  return  a  spectacle  which  few  European 
women  have  been  privileged  to  see,  and  which  I  would 
not  have  missed  for  a  great  deal — namely,  a  series  of 
fe*tes  given  in  honor  of  semi-royal  nuptials,  and  carried 
out  in  the  bona-fide,  old-fashioned  style  which  still 

188 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

obtains  in  Egypt  in  so  far  as  such  ceremonies  are  con- 
cerned. Indeed,  I  was  so  delighted  with  what  I  saw 
then  that  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  dwelling 
for  a  little  while  upon  this  charming  experience  of  mine. 

On  the  first  day  devoted  to  the  wedding  -  feasts, 
on  leaving  my  carriage  1  was  conducted  by  the  chief 
eunuch  through  a  magnificent  garden,  a  place  of 
luxuriant  verdure  and  bubbling  fountains,  which 
was  illumined  by  thousands  of  pink  and  pale-green 
lamps,  swinging  from  the  trees  like  strange,  ideal 
fruit,  bordering  the  parterres  with  their  capricious  fes- 
toons, and  cincturing  the  palace,  which  seemed  hung 
from  top  to  bottom  with  strings  of  live  jewels,  at  once 
soft,  brilliant,  and  chaste  in  their  unspeakably  delicious 
mellowness.  The  path  I  followed  was  strewn  with 
powdered  sea -shells  and  bordered  on  either  side  by 
rare  plants  in  full  bloom,  filling  the  air  with  exquisite 
perfumes.  It  was  a  rather  sultry  but  clear  night,  the 
sky  was  radiant,  and  the  lustre  of  a  great,  white  moon, 
hanging  like  a  gigantic  pearl  in  the  deep  blue  overhead, 
lit  the  trellised  rose-walks  leading  to  the  marble  palace 
and  cast  into  bold  relief  against  the  deep  shadow  of 
palm  and  ilex  the  many  feathery  jets  d'eau  crown- 
ing flower-filled  basins  of  alabaster  with  whispering 
coolness. 

My  guide  and  I  soon  reached  an  open  loggia,  with 
floor  and  columns  of  white  marble.  One  side  opened  to 
the  balmy  air,  the  other  was  richly  draped  with  wonder- 
ful silken  banners  and  hangings  embroidered  with 
gold  and  silver  devices,  flowers,  and  fruit.  Every- 
where arborescent  ferns  in  large,  square  tubs  of  bronze 
filled  in  the  spaces  between  the  columns,  which  were 
themselves  garlanded  with  jasmine,  roses,  and  a 
sort  of  highly  odorous  pink  wistaria  I  had  never  seen 
before.  Here  eunuchs,  attired  in  gala  uniforms,  were 

189 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

waiting  to  escort  me  to  a  huge  and  superbly  decorated 
reception-room,  where  a  galaxy  of  beautiful  white  slaves, 
clad  in  brilliantly  picturesque  Eastern  costumes  and 
literally  covered  with  jewels,  took  charge  of  me,  and 
passing  me,  so  to  speak,  from  one  to  the  other,  ushered 
me  into  a  yet  more  splendid  salon,  where  dancing-girls, 
tambourine  or  castanets  in  hand,  performed  the  grace- 
ful gyrations  of  a  true  Oriental  dance.  On  and  on  I 
was  conducted  through  an  interminable  series  of  apart- 
ments gorgeously  decorated  in  Turkish  style,  with 
gold  -  diapered  walls  glittering  enough  to  dazzle  the 
eyes  of  a  hawk.  Each  room  shaded  off  in  color  into  the 
next,  embracing  every  imaginable  tint  of  the  prism; 
there  was  blue-gold,  green-g  Id,  red-gold,  violet-gold, 
orange-gold,  yellow-gold,  indigo-gold,  all  shimmering 
like  waves  of  fluctuating  electricity,  and  I  am  bound 
to  say  that  this  unique  style  of  mural  decoration  far 
surpassed  in  beauty  anything  which  the  richest  im- 
agination might  suggest. 

The  last  of  this  astonishing  suite  was  occupied  by 
the  mother  of  the  bride,  a  remarkably  well-preserved 
woman  of  thirty,  clothed  in  transparent  gauzes  scin- 
tillating with  gems,  and  whose  jet-black  tresses,  in- 
termingled with  strands  of  pearls,  were  crowned  by 
a  scarlet,  thickly  pailletted  fez,  the  long,  dark -blue 
tassel  of  which  hung  over  her  left  shoulder.  Here  all 
manner  of  extraordinary  refreshments  were  served — 
drinks  of  every  imaginable  color,  sherbets  in  filigree 
cups  of  gold,  fruits  reposing  on  heaped-up  rose  petals, 
confections  which  Oriental  hands  alone  can  prepare, 
and  bon-bons  too  pretty  by  far  to  be  broken  up  and 
eaten. 

The  hostess's  thronelike  divan  was  surrounded  by 
a  dozen  female  slaves  carrying  drawn  swords,  and  by 
an  equal  number  of  eunuchs  armed  to  the  teeth,  and  the 

190 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

numerous  guests  sat  upon  other  divans  ranged  along 
the  wall,  watching  a  group  of  almehs  dancing  a  sort 
of  etherealized  ballet,  in  which  wreaths  of  magnolia, 
datura,  lotus,  and  oleander  played  a  prominent  part. 
Afterwards  they  received  rich  gifts  from  the  hostess, 
and  also  from  the  guests,  who,  according  to  an  im- 
memorial custom,  never  attend  such  fetes  without  bring- 
ing costly  presents  for  the  singing  and  dancing  girls. 

Suddenly  the  curtains  of  a  lofty,  arched  door  were 
drawn  aside  and  the  bride  appeared,  slowly  walking 
upon  a  broad  strip  of  cloth  of  gold  which  slaves,  moving 
backward,  unrolled  under  her  tiny  feet  as  she  ad- 
vanced. On  either  side  of  this  royal  carpet  marched 
a  double  row  of  eunuchs,  bearing  tall  silver  candelabras 
wherein  pink  candles  burned,  and  twenty-four  young 
girls,  wearing  costumes  of  gold  -  striped  white  satin, 
followed  and  surrounded  the  fiancee,  holding  above 
her  head  an  arched  canopy  formed  entirely  of  fresh 
orange-blossoms  and  silvered  leaves. 

Meanwhile  other  girls,  standing  on  little  inlaid 
benches,  or  tripods,  showered  upon  this  fair  procession, 
and  also  upon  the  guests,  handful  after  handful  of  tiny 
gold  coins  struck  expressly  for  the  occasion,  and  which 
were  carried  away  by  those  present  as  charming  little 
mementoes  of  this  auspicious  ceremony.  With  well- 
nigh  military  precision  the  guests  fell  into  step  behind 
the  bridal  cortege,  and,  forming  into  a  triple  line,  follow- 
ed it  from  salon  to  salon  until  a  great  hall,  furnished 
and  upholstered  in  white  and  silver,  and  profusely 
decorated  with  orange,  lemon,  and  myrtle  blossoms, 
was  reached.  On  a  raised  platform  were  three  white 
satin  chairs,  upon  which  the  bride,  her  mother,  and 
the  bridegroom's  mother  took  their  places. 

The  bride  was  an  exceedingly  lovely  girl,  almost 
a  baby  in  years,  with  velvety  black  eyes  soft  as  a  ga- 

191 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

zelle's,  a  little  rosebud  of  a  mouth,  a  skin  like  the  in- 
nermost heart  of  a  tea-rose,  and  blue-black  hair,  as 
fine  as  fits  de  la  merge,  falling  in  opulent  splendor 
from  beneath  a  diadem  of  diamonds  of  fabulous  value. 
A  long  tunic  of  heaviest  shimmering  brocade,  em- 
broidered with  silver  and  pearls,  showed  off  the  perfect 
contours  of  her  form,  and  wide  trousers  of  soft  satin, 
half  concealed  by  the  long  ends  of  a  broad  silken  sash 
worked  with  jewels,  allowed  her  absurdly  delicate  ankles 
and  narrow,  deliciously  arched  feet  to  be  freely  admired. 
The  latter  were  enclosed  in  babouches,  which  appeared 
to  be  made  entirely  of  diamonds  and  rubies.  From 
her  shoulders  hung  a  white  velvet  mantle,  lined  with 
cloth  of  silver  and  provided  with  an  immense  train, 
which  was  carried  behind  her,  when  she  walked,  by 
six  maidens  clad  in  pure  white. 

As  soon  as  everybody  was  seated  the  wedding-pres- 
ents, consisting  of  jewels,  admirable  cashmere  shawls, 
gold  and  silver  plate,  and  other  objects  of  a  magnificence 
which  really  beggars  description,  were  carried  on  golden 
trays,  protected  by  gayly  beribboned,  transparent  cov- 
ers of  crystal,  past  the  fortunate  fiancee,  by  coal-black 
slave-girls,  whose  yellow  and  crimson  gauze  robes,  im- 
prisoned at  the  waist  by  tightly  fitting  corselets  of 
burnished  gold,  made  a  superb  blotch  of  color  amid  all 
the  virginal  whiteness  surrounding  us.  This  formal- 
ity accomplished,  a  tall,  veiled  figure  appeared  upon 
the  scene,  and,  standing  erect  before  the  dai's,  uttered 
a  long  and  lyrical  recitative  in  praise  of  the  blushing 
bride. 

"Here,  0  guests  of  high  degree,"  the  high-pitched 
but  melodious  voice  said, "  we  are  allowed  to  contemplate 
the  faultless  charms  of  a  maiden  who  to-morrow  will 
adorn  the  palace  of  her  well-beloved,  and  cause  great 
joy  and  pride  to  blossom  forth  in  his  manly  heart.  She 

192 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

is  a  marvel  of  marvels,  young  as  a  newly  born  dove, 
white  as  cream,  slender  as  a  reed ;  her  eyes  are  like  pools 
of  heavenly  light,  her  mouth  puts  to  shame  the  bud  of 
the  scarlet  lily,  the  waves  of  her  silken  hair  are  made 
lustrous  each  night  by  the  magic  touch  of  her  protect- 
ing spirits,  her  purity  is  like  a  frozen  moon-beam's,  her 
innocence  greater  than  that  of  the  little  lamb  a  week 
old!  Behold  her,  0  noble  guests!  Behold,  O  slaves 
and  people,  this  pearl  of  our  harem,  who  has  but  just 
received  the  priceless  nechane*  sent  to  her  by  her  lord 
that  is  to  be,  and  whose  virginal  blushes  were  first 
called  forth  by  the  fragrance  of  the  great  love  by  which 
it  was  perfumed." 

The  voice  rose  and  fell  in  canorous  cadence,  the  veiled 
figure  opened  its  gauze-enwrapped  arms  like  flapping 
wings,  threw  back  its  swathed  head,  and  finally,  when 
the  interminable  monologue  ended,  retired  backward 
with  solemn  tread  to  the  music  of  a  hundred  guzlas 
and  native  harps,  emanating  from  an  invisible  or- 
chestra concealed  amid  palms  and  flowers  behind  the 
dai's. 

The  distribution  of  the  chaoura  followed  this,  the 
chaoura  being  a  scarf  of  fine  linen,  richly  embroidered 
with  gold,  and  contained  in  a  boga,  or  square  envelope, 
of  azure  velvet  tied  with  gold  cord,  which  is  presented  to 
each  guest  in  the  name  of  the  bride  and  groom.  Then 
the  "  nightingales,"  or  "  singers  of  songs,"  were  ushered 
in  with  great  ceremony,  and,  grouping  themselves  on 
each  side  of  the  dai's,  commenced  a  series  of  melodies 
composed  of  couplets  and  refrains,  sung  alternately 
by  each  group.  Here  is  an  example  of  these  musical 
creations,  which  are  generally  improvised  for  the 
occasion : 

*  A  jewel  equivalent  to  our  engagement-ring. 
»3  193 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

COUPLET 

Oh!  my  beloved,  slumber  sweetly; 

For  seven  years  have  I  waited  to  wake  thee; 

A  kiss  will  I  press  on  thy  rosy  lips, 

A  caress  on  thy  snowy  bosom. 

Wake,  my  beloved,  I  am  thy  love — 

Wake,  my  arms  await  thee. 

REFRAIN 

O  moonl     0  moon!    My  little  white  moon, 

Swinging  in  the  sky, 

Shine  on  my  love  as  she  slumbers; 

But  wake  her  not, 

Thou  little  round  moon, 

For  'twill  be  my  joy  to  do  so. 

COUPLET 

White  as  a  lily  she  lies  there, 

Waiting  for  me,  her  lover ; 

Heart  of  my  heart, 

Soul  of  my  soul, 

Favorite  wife  of  my  youth ; 

Pink  as  a  rose  she  will  awake, 

Acknowledging  me  as  her  lord. 

REFRAIN 

O  moon!     O  moon!    My  little  round  moon, 

Who  dyest  the  plumage  of  the  awakening  dove 

As  with  the  rich  tints  of  henna, 

Shine  on  my  love 

But  wake  her  not, 

For  it  is  my  joy  to  do  so. 

When  the  songs  were  brought  to  an  end  the  guests 
once  more  formed  into  a  procession,  and  as  they  passed 
before  the  bride  each  in  turn  cast  over  her  a  little  pinch 
of  salt,  so  that  she  soon  appeared  as  had  a  slight 

194 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

frost  fallen  upon  her  white-clad  form,  which  had 
been  hurriedly  covered  with  a  transparent  veil  of  arach- 
nean  gauze.  Blushing  rosy  red  beneath  these  shim- 
mering folds,  the  girl  stood  strangely  still,  her  lovely 
eyes  cast  down,  her  long  lashes  sweeping  her  rounded 
cheeks,  her  little  hands  folded  upon  her  breast,  a  sweet, 
pretty,  dreamy  figure,  looking  almost  unreal  in  its  ex- 
traordinary daintiness  and  beauty  of  coloring. 

This  was  the  end.  With  profound  obeisances  the 
guests  retired,  bowed  out  by  slaves  and  eunuchs,  while 
the  fianc6e  was  conducted  back  to  her  apartments, 
where  she  was  to  await  in  fasting  and  prayer  other 
similar  ceremonies,  which  during  a  whole  week,  day 
after  day  and  night  after  night,  would  precede  her 
wedding. 

"  B'ismillah !  *  Who  made  this  exquisite  dress  for 
you?" 

The  words  were  whispered  in  my  ear  as  I  walked  once 
more  through  the  gardens,  followed  and  preceded  by 
eunuchs  and  accompanied  by  the  chief  eunuch  himself, 
who,  according  to  custom,  held  me  tightly  by  the  elbow 
as  if  I  were  his  prisoner. 

I  turned  around,  much  surprised,  and  found  myself 
face  to  face  with  the  favorite  wife  of  the  Prime-Minister. 
She  herself  was  attired  with  the  greatest  magnificence 
and  quite  &  la  Franqua,  save  for  the  diaphanous  ydsh- 
mak  of  white  silk  tulle  which  floated  like  a  cloud  over 
her  head  and  shoulders. 

Hardly  able  to  repress  a  smile,  I  told  her  the  name 
of  my  couturier,  and,  quite  regardless  of  the  fact  that 
we  were  stopping  the  way,  and  that  my  escort's  Olym- 
pian brows  were  drawn  together  in  a  ferocious  frown, 
she  began  to  finger  my  gown  with  exclamations  of  purest 
delight. 

*  In  the  name  of  Allah. 
195 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  Oh,  I  noticed  during  the  zaffa  (procession)  that  you 
were  the  best -dressed  lady  there.  Even  the  bride, 
when  to-morrow  she  appears  dressed  a  la  Franqua,  as 
is  our  custom  now,  will  have  nothing  finer  than  this. 
Oh,  think  of  pink  velvet  veiled  with  silver  tissue,  and 
then  again  with  such  splendid  lace !  Oh,  what  illumina- 
tion to  the  mind,  what  clovelike  fragrance!  And  your 
rubies!  Oh,  really,  really,  salat  en  Nabi  (bless  the 
Prophet!),  such  marvels  I  never  have  beheld!  Your 
yashmak,  too — powdered  with  diamond-dust!  Ya,  la, 
la!  You  are  happy,  indeed!  Elhame  dulli  lah !" 

I  was  not  so  sure  about  the  happiness  at  that  moment, 
but  assuredly  I  had  never  been  so  embarrassed  in  all 
my  previous  existence.  The  good  lady's  loud  excla- 
mations had  brought  to  my  side  all  the  women  within 
range  of  her  voice,  and  the  chorus  burst  into  extrava- 
gant praise,  interlarded  with  excited  and  interminable 
Ya,  la,  las  and  Ya,  la,  Us.  It  was  absolutely  unen- 
durable. They  fingered  my  hair,  my  jewels,  my  fan, 
my  bouquet.  They  bent  down  to  examine  my  slip- 
pers, and  when  they  discovered,  after  a  regular  fight 
for  it,  that  the  latter  were  provided  with  silver  heels, 
and  that  my  train  was  lined  with  hand-painted  satin, 
their  joy  became  nothing  short  of  delirium.  With  the 
greatest  possible  trouble  I  disengaged  myself  from  their 
little,  jewelled  hands,  and  only  breathed  easily  when 
two  gigantic  eunuchs  had  lifted  me  bodily  into  my  car- 
riage with  that  precipitation  and  violence  which  forms 
part  and  parcel  of  their  etiquette. 

"Yalla!  Ya  ost!"  ("Drive  on,  coachman!")  cried 
out  their  chief,  shrilly,  and  at  last  I  was  at  liberty  to 
laugh  unmolested  and  unrestrained. 

Space  fails  me  to  describe  the  remainder  of  those 
memorable  wedding  festivities  at  any  length,  and  yet 
it  seems  hardly  fair  to  scamper  over  the  narration  there- 

196 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

of,  for  they  were  well  worth  recording  from  the  "  Song  of 
the  Bride/'  sung  by  the  Gawouazis  (singing  dancers) 
on  the  leilat  el  henna  (night  of  the  henna),  and  which 
is  composed  with  a  view  of  exalting  the  manifold  quali- 
ties, heroic  deeds,  and  surpassing  beauty  of  the  bride- 
groom, to  the  last  act  of  this  amorous  drama,  when  the 
young  couple  are  left  alone  together  and  see  each  other 
face  to  face  for  the  first  time. 

The  panegyric  of  the  bridegroom  is  something  like 
the  following: 

"  I  am  weak  and  reeling  with  joy. 

My  love    is  Lice  the    perfumed  breezes  of    Allah's   pleasure- 
grounds  I 

My  love  resembles  the  moon,  the  stars,  and  the  planets. 
Resembles  the  moon  swinging  on  the  point  of  a  slender  reed. 
He  is  ravishing,  he  is  polite,  he  is  unequalled. 
Incomparably  brave,  handsome,  and  spiritual. 
I  am  drawn  to  him  with  an  irresistible  force. 
Ah!  poor  little  me,  I  will  drown  in  the  flood  of  his  love!" 

And  so  forth  and  so  on,  for  twenty-four  couplets  and 
as  many  refrains. 

I  had  seen  many  curious  pageants  in  many  quaint 
corners  of  the  globe,  yet  I  was  greatly  impressed  and 
surprised  by  what  I  saw  then.  It  was  all  so  extraordi- 
nary and  characteristic. 

The  reception  of  the  bride  at  her  husband's  palace 
struck  me  as  especially  original,  and  as,  thanks  to  my 
being  a  European  woman,  I  could  after  a  fashion  see 
the  ceremonies  in  both  the  harim'lik  and  salaam 'lik, 
I  was  in  a  position  to  judge  them  with  some  fairness. 
The  bridegroom  had  often  dined  at  my  house,  as  had 
also  his  illustrious  father,  his  younger  brother,  and  two 
of  his  uncles,  so  that  instead  of  joining  the  cortege  of 
the  bride  I  was  courteously  invited  to  precede  it,  and 
to  be  already  on  the  spot  when  it  arrived  at  its  destina- 

197 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

tion.  I  was  very  glad  of  this,  for  it  spared  me  the  an- 
noyance of  driving  slowly  through  the  streets,  blocked 
in  a  long  file  of  equipages,  and  regaled  the  while  with 
the  music  of  many  brass  bands,  string  and  wind  in- 
struments, the  martial  airs  played  on  the  zoumara  be- 
ing especially  trying  to  the  nerves  and  exasperating 
to  horses  not  carefully  and  patiently  trained  to  accept 
such  cacophony. 

When  my  brougham  drew  up  before  the  elaborate- 
ly decorated  portals,  the  venerable  master  of  the  house 
hurried  down  the  steps  of  the  palace,  and,  offering  me 
his  hand,  conducted  me  through  a  succession  of  loggias, 
halls,  and  reception-rooms  to  the  vast  gardens  separat- 
ing the  salaam'lik  from  the  harim'lik,  and  as  we  passed 
along  I  was  enabled  to  see  all  that  Cairo  then  held  of  im- 
portant seigneurs  clad  in  gala  costumes  and  uniforms, 
lounging  in  the  state  apartment  lighted  a  giorno  by 
myriads  of  candles  and  lamps.  The  courtesy  ydshmak, 
which  I  wore  over  my  court-dress,  precluded — according 
to  the  time-honored  Mohammedan  custom — the  possi- 
bility of  any  of  the  male  guests  bowing  to  me  or  of 
even  looking  my  way,  and  this  scrupulous  observance 
of  the  respect  $ue  to  the  veil  that  is  supposed  to  shield 
the  modesty  of  Eastern  women,  on  the  part  of  men  whom 
I  was  accustomed  to  receive  at  my  house,  amused  me 
very  much. 

The  greatest  magnificence  was  displayed  throughout 
the  salaam'lik.  The  buffets  and  consoles  groaned  be- 
neath the  weight  of  gold  and  silver  plate ;  every  imag- 
inable sort  of  refreshment  was  handed  around  by  slave- 
boys  clad  in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow;  garlands  of 
glowing  flowers  adorned  both  walls  and  ceiling,  and 
silken  banners,  sparkling  with  gold,  fluttered  in  every 
direction.  At  last  we  arrived  at  the  threshold  of  the 
harim'lik,  where  the  eunuchs,  bowing  to  the  ground, 

198 


made  way  for  us  and  formed  into  a  double  line,  through 
the  middle  of  which  we  proceeded  to  the  apartment  re- 
served for  the  reception  of  the  bride.  There  I  was  met  by 
the  mother  of  the  bridegroom,  and  my  host  took  leave 
of  me  to  return  to  his  own  portion  of  the  palace. 

Again  I  was  granted  the  privilege  of  gazing  upon 
gilded  walls,  painted  ceilings,  gorgeous  furniture, 
admirable  embroideries,  and  absolutely  astounding 
rugs — a  display  which  was,  after  all,  but  a  repetition 
of  what  I  had  seen  at  the  bride's  home  and  in  many 
other  Cairene  and  Constantinopolitan  palaces;  but  I 
must  confess  that  the  bridal -room  on  this  occasion 
far  distanced  anything  I  had  ever  beheld.  There  the 
draperies  and  hangings  were  of  thick,  soft,  old-rose 
silken  stuffs,  brocaded  in  a  deliciously  light  pattern 
of  convolvulus  vines  and  flowers,  in  silver  and  gold. 
The  carpet  covering  the  centre  of  the  rich  mosaic  floor 
was  of  faint  turquoise  blue,  old-rose,  and  white,  with  a 
bloom  on  it  like  that  of  a  ripe  Reine-  Claude  plum, 
and  the  divans  lining  the  wall  were  draped  with  rose- 
hued  satin,  embroidered  with  silk,  gold,  silver,  and 
chenille  in  the  most  elaborate  manner. 

From  the  ceiling  hung  several  lamps  of  solid  silver, 
shedding  the  softest  of  lights  upon  this  enchanting 
room  and  upon  the  nuptial  bed,  an  enormous  and  finely 
gilded  four-poster,  crowned  by  a  canopy  of  gold-and- 
pearl  embroidered  cloth  of  silver,  from  which  drooped 
a  broad  fringe  and  numerous  tassels  of  crystal  and  coral 
beads,  and  provided  with  pink-tufted  white  satin  mat- 
tresses and  pillows,  showing  through  the  exquisitely 
sheer  batiste  and  costly  laces  of  the  cases  and  sheets. 
The  counterpane,  doubled  back  and  falling  to  the  floor, 
was  another  marvellous  piece  of  needlework,  which  look- 
ed as  if  fairies  alone  could  be  responsible  for  the  capri- 
cious arabesques  adorning  it ;  and  on  each  side  of  this 

199 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

regal  couch  tall  perfume-burners  of  pink  copper  poured 
forth  delicious  vapors,  which  rose  in  transparent  volutes 
from  their  cunningly  perforated  covers. 

While  I  was  yet  taking  in  all  these  splendors,  the 
sound  of  the  approaching  procession  faintly  reached 
our  ears,  and  we  hurried  away  to  greet  the  bride 
on  her  entrance.  Just  inside  the  threshold  of  the 
harim'lik  we  stopped,  almost  on  the  edge  of  a  broad 
pool  of  blood  staining  the  garden  sand  with  vivid  scar- 
let, and  which  but  a  minute  before  had  been  coursing 
through  the  body  of  a  baby  buffalo,  sacrificed  in  honor 
of  the  fiancee,  and  which  now  lay  limp  and  lifeless  un- 
der a  neighboring  clump  of  blooming  rose-bushes. 
The  vanguard  of  the  cortege  ranged  itself  along  three 
sides  of  the  great  yard,  under  the  severe  eyes  of  a 
squad  of  blue  -  uniformed  khedivial  mounted  -  police ; 
the  bouquet  -  bearers,  torch  -  bearers,  and  standard, 
bearers,  bestriding  milk-white  stallions,  formed  them- 
selves into  line  along  the  outer  edge  thereof,  and,  pre- 
ceded by  a  band  of  musicians,  the  ponderous  gala 
carriage,  made  of  mirrors  and  much  gilded  scroll-work, 
and  drawn  by  six  snowy  horses  magnificently  ca- 
parisoned, rumbled  heavily  up  and  stopped  before  the 
entrance  steps.  Seized  by  vigorous  and  eager  hands, 
the  bride  was  lifted  out  and  almost  carried  within  the 
palace,  where  she  was  greeted  by  prolonged  wailing 
shrieks  of  unutterable  shrillness,  which,  followed  by 
a  weird  and  curiously  rapid  clapping  of  the  tongue 
against  the  palate,  makes  up  the  regulation  and  some- 
what terrifying  welcome  of  the  fiancee  on  such  oc- 
casions. It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  imagine  a 
wilder  and  more  discordant  concert  than  this  savage 
outburst,  which  carries  one  back  in  spirit  to  the  re- 
motest ages  of  the  human  race. 

Covered  from  head  to  foot  with  a  thick  and  impene- 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

trable  silken  veil,  striped  with  gold  and  fastened  on  each 
side  of  the  head  by  two  rutilant  cascades  of  golden  thread 
falling  to  the  very  ground,  the  trembling  girl  was 
led  forward  by  her  father  and  brother,  the  long  train 
of  her  whife  satin  dress  literally  ablaze  with  diamonds 
rippling  behind  her  in  big  waves  of  light  as  she  slowly 
advanced,  followed  by  six  almehs,  singing  softly  the 
following  words : 

"  Here  she  comes,  the  beauty  unsurpassed! 
Her  eyebrows  are  traced  as  with  an  onyx  pencil  I 
Her  eyes  are  soft  as  a  gazelle's  I 
Her  teeth  are  pearls  of  untold  value  I 
Her  hair  falls  to  her  little  feet  like  showers  of  fine  silk  I 
Her  little  nose  is  dainty  as  a  Syrian  azerollef 

Ya  la  la,  Ya  la  li,  Ya  la  li  la ! 
Her  mouth,  like  the  great  Suleiman's  ring,  changes  everything 

to  gold! 

Her  pink-coral  lips  are  moist  with  heavenly  dews! 
Her  neck,  like  an  alabaster  column,  is  smooth  and  polished ! 
Her  ivory  bosom  gently  rises  and  falls  like  that  of  a  sleeping 

baby  I 
*Her  green  jade  heels  will  bring  luck  to  her  beloved! 

Ya  la  la,  Ya  la  li  la  la! 

Bow,  O  people!     Be  humble.     Bow,  guests,  people,  and  slaves, 
for  here  cometh  the  bride!" 

When  the  song  ceased,  a  blast  of  silver  trumpets  rang 
out  through  the  great  hall,  and  a  group  of  eunuchs 
appeared  bearing  lighted  candelabra  and  preceding 
the  bridegroom,  who,  apparelled  with  the  utmost 
splendor,  hurried  forward  and  prostrated  himself  upon 
a  gorgeous  prayer-rug  which  had  been  prepared  for 
him,  almost  at  the  feet  of  his  bride.  After  publicly 

*A  person  who  brings  good  luck  is  said  to  possess  "green 
heels,"  one  who  brings  bad  luck,  "black  heels,"  green  being 
the  color  of  the  Prophet. 

201 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

lifting  his  heart  towards  his  Maker,  and  thanking  Him, 
so  to  speak  officially,  for  the  great  boon  about  to  be 
granted  him,  he  solemnly  rose,  drew  the  slender,  grace- 
ful figure  of  the  girl  within  the  shelter  of  his  arms,  and 
pinned  upon  her  breast  a  jewel  of  great  price.  She  in 
turn  inclined  herself  in  low  obeisance,  and  taking  his 
hand  in  both  her  own,  pressed  it  reverentially  to  her  lips 
through  her  silken  veil,  which  was  not  for  an  instant 
raised  during  the  whole  ceremony.  Gently,  tenderly, 
her  lord  led  her  away,  while  all  present  fell  back  in 
utter  and  imposing  silence,  through  which,  from  far 
away  in  the  gardens,  the  floating  melody  of  some  ex- 
quisitely played  string  instruments  was  just  perceptible. 
Before  reaching  the  door  leading  to  their  priyate  apart- 
ments the  young  couple  turned  and  bowed  low  towards 
those  assembled  to  wish  them  God-speed.  The  chief 
eunuch  drew  back  the  heavy,  shimmering  curtains 
of  the  lofty  arch  under  which  they  were  about  to  pass, 
there  was  a  strident  crash  of  cymbals  as  they  disap- 
peared beneath  it,  and,  with  one  nerve-shaking  shout 
of  triumph  from  the  entire  assembly,  the  ceremony  was 
brought  to  a  close. 

Man  and  maid  were  at  last  allowed  to  look  into  each 
other's  eyes  and  seek  to  discover  whether  they  would, 
indeed,  love  each  other. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Intrigue   and    moonlight,  treachery  and  gold, 

Antiquity  and  newness  in  one  breath ; 
Verdure  escaping  from  the  desert's  hold, 

Blood,  flowers,  beauty,  and  blue  sky — and  death. 

M.  M. 

"  WOULD  it  be  possible  for  your  husband  to  make 
use  of  the  influences  which  he  possesses  at  Berlin  to 
provoke  an  international  congress  in  order  to  counter- 
act the  party  now  in  favor  of  a  British  protectorate  in 
Egypt?" 

"  As  a  last  and  forlorn  hope?" 

"  Why,  yes — possibly ;  although  the  present  govern- 
ment is  not  in  favor  of  a  protectorate,  is  it?" 

"No,  I  think  that  I  may  safely  say  that  much;  but 
then  the  present  government  is  rather  erratic,  and 
little  to  be  trusted.  Of  course,  such  a  congress  might 
be  the  salvation  of  His  Highness,  as  it  probably  would 
insure  the  neutrality  of  Egypt — a  neutrality  guaran- 
teed by  the  great  Powers,  not  one  of  which  would  then 
have  precedence  over  the  other.  For  you  doubtless 
realize,  my  dear  Pasha,  that  in  case  of  such  an  arrange- 
ment, France  especially  would  make  a  particular  point 
of  England's  being  reduced  to  the  rank  and  file,  instead 
of  lording  it  over  here  as  she  does  now?" 

"Oh  yes,  I  understand  that.  Naturally,  Russia, 
Turkey,  Italy — and,  more  than  all,  France — are  adverse 
to  British  preponderance  in  Egypt;  and  I  believe  that 
such  a  conference  would  make  of  this  country  a  sort 

203 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

of  second  Belgium,  with  its  neutrality  guaranteed  by 
a  concert  of  the  great  Powers/' 

"There  is  a  point  which  you  do  not  take  into  suffi- 
cient consideration  at  the  ministry,  and  that  is  France's 
extreme  eagerness  to  guarantee  the  Egyptian  debt  and 
to  render  herself  immediately  responsible  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  coupons.  Of  course,  this  would  be  done 
with  a  view  of  taking  the  management  of  this  country 
in  her  own  hands  and  of  substituting  herself  for  Eng- 
land. It  would  be  a  point  d'honneur  with  France  to 
accomplish  all  that  England  has  neglected  to  do  here 
for  the  good  of  the  people  and  of  the  land,  but  still  one 
cannot  by  any  means  be  sure  that  it  would,  after  all, 
be  best  if  France  were  to  gain  the  upper  hand,  in  spite 
of  England's  remissness  in  fulfilling  her  freely  taken 
engagements.  At  any  rate,  whatever  happens,  the 
question  of  supremacy  in  Egypt  will  be  hotly  disputed 
between  those  two  countries  now." 

"  This  reduces  our  present  situation  to  a  mere  Franco- 
British  squabble?" 

"  Yes,  after  a  fashion,  it  does ;  but  one  must  not  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  France,  by  this  ill-timed  inter- 
ference of  hers,  at  a  moment  when  chaos  is  already 
reigning  supreme,  is  probably  going  to  force  England 
into  a  policy  which  has  until  now  been  distasteful  to 
her,  and  which  will  not  be  a  good  or  sound  one  either 
for  herself  or  for  Egypt.  Moreover,  should  England 
guarantee  the  debt — which  would  mean,  of  course,  her 
declaring  a  protectorate — that  will  be  the  end  of  all  the 
Khedive's  chances,  for  it  will  no  longer  be  worth  her 
while  to  maintain  him  on  the  throne." 

"  What  do  you  think  of  the  English  Premier's  atti- 
tude in  the  matter?" 

"  My  dear  Pasha,  you  know  as  well  as  I  do  what  the 
Premier  is.  The  mere  mention  of  Egypt  throws  him 

204 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

into  veritable  convulsions  of  rage,  and  his  good  wife — 
a  Cerberus  in  petticoats  —  never  fails  to  warn  those 
who  approach  him  that  they  are  under  no  circum- 
stances whatsoever  to  allude  to  it  in  his  presence.  It  is 
most  ridiculous,  but  what  can  one  do?  You  have  no 
idea  of  the  bitter  quarrels  which  are  caused  by  the 
Egyptian  question  in  England.  While  we  were  there 
a  most  regrettable  scene  took  place  between  him  and 

Lord  N e  during  a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet. 

The  Premier  got  up  from  his  place,  and,  hitting  the 
table  violently  with  his  clinched  fist,  declared  that  the 
British  troops  would  have  to  be  immediately  recalled, 

whereupon  Lord  N e  also  rose  and  said  that 

the  English  people  would  never  consent  to  this,  and 
that  personally  he  himself  would  hand  in  his  resig- 
nation if  such  an  outrage  were  permitted.  The  quarrel 
waxed  so  hot  and  heavy  that  finally  the  Premier  took 
his  departure,  and  was  ill  in  bed  for  a  week  from  sheer 
exasperation.  Is  that  not  typical?" 

"  Dear  me,  dear  me !  We  are  really  in  a  very  critical 
situation,  and  how  we  shall  ever  manage  to  negotiate 
the  loan  of  five  or  six  millions,  which  is  to  us  a  sine 
qua  non,  if  neither  France  nor  England  guarantee 
our  solvency,  is  a  mystery  to  me.  Yet  the  failure  to 
achieve  this  would  spell  ruin  for  us." 

"Remember  what  I  told  you  just  now,  and  draw 
your  own  conclusions." 

The  Egyptian  Premier  rose  abruptly  from  the  divan 
where  he  had  been  sitting  during  our  conversation, 
and  loudly  snapping  his  fingers — a  most  uncanny  and 
exasperating  habit  of  his — took  his  stand  before  the 
open  window  and  fell  into  a  brown  study,  from  which 
I  took  care  not  to  arouse  him  at  once,  having  had 
enough  of  this  wearisome  discussion. 

After  a  comparatively  long  interval,  which  I  em- 

205 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ployed  in  looking  at  the  gorgeous  salon  where  we  had 
spent  the  last  hour  or  so  in  profitless  talk,  he  turned 
once  more  towards  me,  and  in  his  low-pitched,  languid 
voice,  said,  tentatively: 

"The  English  imagine,  don't  they,  that  were  their 
troops  to  be  withdrawn,  the  Dervishes  would  vanquish 
us  and  be  upon  the  Mediterranean  in  the  twinkling  of 
an  eye?" 

I  laughed.  "  Well,  you  cannot  blame  them  for  slight- 
ly exaggerating  their  own  importance.  They  con- 
sider themselves  the  policemen  of  the  entire  world, 
although  you  and  I  are  too  wise,  are  we  not,  to  believe 
in  the  fable  of  their  disinterestedness?  That  is  only 
one  of  their  harmless  little  boasts,  and  deceives  nobody 
who  knows  them  at  all  intimately." 

"They  are  a  queer  people.  Just  think  of  their  pre- 
tending that  in  1 88 1  nothing  could  be  further  from  their 
minds  than  interference  in  Egypt,  and  yet  1882  left 
them  practically  in  possession  of  the  country.  Who 
will  ever  believe  that  they  really  had  no  choice  in  the 
matter?" 

I  shrugged  my  shoulders  and  remained  silent,  for  I 
was  not  minded  to  reopen  an  exhaustive  chapter — 
namely,  that  of  Egyptian  grievances  against  England. 
For  a  few  moments  the  great  statesman  puffed  thought- 
fully at  his  cigarette ;  then  he  sat  down  again  beside 
me,  and  with  an  air  of  determination,  which  had  been 
utterly  lacking  from  his  whole  attitude  until  then,  said, 
shortly : 

"  Can  you — yes  or  no — induce  your  husband  to  set 
the  idea  of  a  congress  or  conference  going  ?  This 
is  the  main  point  just  now,  for  I  am  gradually  com- 
ing to  the  conclusion  that  that  would  indeed  be  our 
salvation." 

"I  believe  I  can  easily  do  what  you  ask,"  I  replied, 

206 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

after  a  little  pause ;  "  but  whether  Fred  succeeds  or  not 
is  quite  another  question." 

"Will  you  try?" 

"  Yes,  of  course  I  will  try — that  is,  if  you  really  wish 
me  to  do  so.  Perhaps  the  plan  is  not  as  perfect  as  you 
think,  however,  although  it  may  certainly  be  attempted, 
and  might  prove  successful." 

"  We  have  a  proverb  which  says  that  to-day  only  is 
our  own,"  murmured  R  .  .  z,  with  a  hopeless  little 
smile,  "and  our  friends  the  English  have  another 
about  striking  the  iron  while  it  is  hot.  You  see,  Mon- 
seigneur  is  frightened  wellnigh  out  of  his  wits  by  the 
continual  attacks  made  upon  him  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Last  night  he  was  so  worried  about  this  that 
he  alarmed  even  me." 

"  I  trust  that  you  will  not  think  me  disloyal  if  I  say 
that  it  were  better  for  him  to  be  man  enough  to  face 
the  truth  as  it  stands,  instead  of  spending  his  time  in 
wrathful  vituperation  and  idle  terrors.  He  is  very 
difficult  to  manage." 

I  paused  and  looked  out  towards  the  gardens,  flooded 
with  sunshine  and  redolent  with  the  intoxicating  scent 
of  millions  of  blossoms.  "Heavens  and  earth,"  I 
thought,  impatiently,  " que  sommes  nous  venus  faire 
dans  cette  galore!"  Ever  since  our  return  from  Eng- 
land Fred  had  been  bending  all  his  efforts  to  bolstering 
up  Tewfik's  sinking  courage  and  energy,  more  for  the 
honor  of  the  task  intrusted  to  himself  than  from  any 
increased  interest  in  the  Viceroy's  affairs,  which,  in  spite 
of  all  one  could  do — and  did — to  help  him,  were,  thanks 
to  his  own  methods,  in  a  chronic  and  hopeless  muddle. 
Weariness  and  exasperation  were  now  his  reward.  Two 
or  three  times  lately,  however,  I  had  been  on  the  point  of 
believing  that  there  must  be  some  other  and  graver  rea- 
son for  his  harassed  looks,  but  he  denied  this  absolutely. 

207 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

R  .  .  z  Pasha,  probably  astonished  at  my  silence, 
gave  an  uneasy  look  in  my  direction,  his  brown,  parch- 
ment-like face,  keen,  piercing  eyes,  and  wizened  figure 
making  a  strange  picture  against  the  delicate  pink- 
and-white  satin  cushions  upon  which  he  was  leaning. 
We  had  not  very  much  to  say  to  each  other  now,  and 
when  the  Premier  addressed  me  again  it  was  in  a 
staccato  and  apologetic  tone  which  surprised  me  a 
little. 

"I  have  made  you  spend  a  very  dull  morning,"  he 
said,  with  a  brisk  rubbing  of  his  dry  hands,  which 
sounded  like  the  friction  of  withered  leaves.  "You 
are  always  so  patient  and  kind.  Truly,  you  have  been 
invaluable  to  us — in-val-u-a-ble  " ;  he  pronounced  the 
word  syllable  by  syllable,  as  if  to  give  it  greater  em- 
phasis. "You  must  not  think  that  we  do  not  appre- 
ciate all  that  you  do  for  us.  .  .  ." 

"My  dear  Pasha,"  I  interrupted,  "I  am  doing  ab- 
solutely nothing.  Pray  do  not  consider  it  necessary 
to  thank  me.  I  would  be  only  too  glad  to  be  of  assist- 
ance when  Fred  is  busy  or  absent — as  is  now  the  case — 
but  my  knowledge  of  politics  is  far  too  slender  to  give 
me  any  right  of  interference.  I  am,  you  see,"  I  added, 
reflectively,  "nothing  but  a  worldly  butterfly,  playing 
occasionally  at  being  serious  and  deeply  interested  in 
the  affairs  of  the  hour,  but  all  I  accomplish  is  a  mere 
flutter  of  wings." 

He  laughed.  "  That  is  not  how  we  judge  your  abil- 
ities ;  but  if  this  were  really  the  case  you  would  have  all 
the  greater  merit  in  forcing  yourself  to  talk  about  such 
uninteresting  subjects  as  the  destiny  of  nations.  You 
who  have  been  created  to  enjoy  all  that  life  holds  of 
fairest  and  most  beautiful.  And  now,  may  I  be  allowed 
to  show  you  something  which  I  think  you  will  admire? 
It  is  a  thoroughly  original  specimen  of  our  somewhat 

208 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

crude  art,  but  you  are  indulgent  to  our  failings,  and  so 
it  may  find  grace  in  your  eyes." 

He  rose,  and,  unlocking  a  small  cabinet  of  exquisite 
workmanship,  handed  me  a  faded  box  of  azure  velvet. 
"  It  belonged  to  my  mother,"  he  said,  simply,  "  so  you 
see  that  it  is  rather  ancient." 

I  touched  the  spring  which  closed  the  ecrin,  and 
gave  a  start  of  astonishment  at  the  sight  of  the  mag- 
nificent jewel  it  contained — a  triple  row  of  rubies,  large 
and  clear  and  perfect,  forming  an  ornament  of  fab- 
ulous value  set  quaintly  in  a  flexible  mesh  of  dull 
gold,  preciously  worked  in  representation  of  pome- 
granate leaves  and  buds. 

"How  beautiful!"  I  exclaimed,  tilting  the  box  to  and 
fro  to  allow  the  bright  morning  light  fair  play  about 
the  facets  of  the  stones. 

"I  am  glad  you  like  it,"  he  said,  turning  his 
eyes  away,  "for  I  wish  you  to  accept  it  as  a  sou- 
venir of  your  visit  here.  Will  you  honor  me  by  so 
doing?" 

Quietly  setting  the  box  on  the  divan,  I  looked  smil- 
ingly at  him. 

"Bribery  and  corruption?"  I  asked,  in  a  tone  meant 
to  convey  the  impression  that  I  looked  upon  the  whole 
thing  as  a  mere  amiable  pleasantry.  Then  1  contin- 
ued, in  the  same  gay  and  speculative  tone:  "When  I 
consider  that  I  deserve  a  reward  for  my  invaluable 
services,  I  will  beg  you  to  let  me  come  and  wander  about 
those  superb  gardens" — here  I  indicated  with  a  sweep 
of  the  hand  the  blossoming  parterres  and  rose-grown 
paths  stretching  before  the  windows  —  "and  will  help 
myself  unstintingly  to  Your  Excellency's  finest  flowers 
and  plants,  for  I  am  passionately  fond  of  flowers.  But 
until  that  time  arrives  I  must  respectfully  decline  to 
be  presented  with  jewels  worth  a  king's  ransom." 
H  209 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

He  watched  me  as  I  spoke  with  curious  and  al- 
most grotesque  astonishment.  It  was  obvious  that 
he  was  mentally  calculating  the  real  import  of  my 
words,  for  to  complicated  natures  like  his  plain  and 
outspoken  truths  generally  wear  a  dangerous  and 
scheming  aspect.  His  mouth  was  twisted  into  a  smile 
like  that  of  an  old  goblin,  and  his  lean  fingers  twitched 
round  the  glorious  golden  collar,  which  he  had  taken 
from  its  receptacle. 

"  Do  you  see  any  impropriety  in  a  man  of  my  age — 
I  could  be  your  grandfather,  you  know — giving  a 
little  token  of  gratitude  and  reverence  to  a  child  like 
you?"  he  said,  speaking  with  curious  distinctness. 
In  spite  of  his  unprepossessing  exterior,  he  was  an  in- 
teresting and  by  no  means  displeasing  personality. 
He  had  always  been  a  hard  worker,  and  there  were 
characteristic  furrows  about  his  eyes,  showing  clearly 
that  he  had  suffered  deeply  at  some  time  or  other  of  his 
life,  while  others  betrayed  the  fact  that  he  was  in 
a  precarious  state  of  health.  He  was  an  Oriental  in 
the  full  acceptation  of  the  word,  and  beneath  his  long 
stambouline  beat  a  heart  cruel,  jealous,  uncivilized, 
and  fierce,  in  which  great  contempt  for  women  reigned 
supreme — those  women,  pretty,  empty-headed,  chat- 
tering, who  lived  indolent,  useless,  luxurious  lives  in 
unseen  zenanas,  beyond  the  flowering  trees  and  shrubs 
of  mysterious  gardens ;  but  Oriental  though  he  was,  he 
had  been,  by  reason  of  the  necessities  of  a  diplomatic 
career,  too  well  trained  in  the  codes  of  European  so- 
ciety to  make  the  mistake  of  allowing  this  feeling  to 
betray  itself  now,  and  therefore  the  expression  of  his 
face  was  difficult  to  read  as  he  stood  before  me  still 
holding  the  glittering  rubies,  which  looked  like  things 
alive. 

"My  dear  Pasha,"  I  said,  quickly,  "I  will  now  bid 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

5Tou  good-morning  and  ride  home,  for  the  sun  is  getting 
hot  and  I  must  not  risk  my  complexion — which  has 
never  been  my  best  point,  I  regret  to  say — even  in  the 
interest  of  political  intrigue." 

He  stood  for  a  second  irresolutely  between  me  and 
the  door,  then  suddenly  a  peculiar  smile  broke  over 
his  countenance.  "  You  are  a  very  strange,  and,  permit 
me  to  add,  a  very  dangerous  woman.  A  woman  is 
always  dangerous  when  she  does  in  no  single  particu- 
lar act  as  one  has  a  right  to  expect  that  a  woman  will 
act,  and  I — well,  I  am  an  old  fool  to  have  classed  you 
even  momentarily  with  the  rest.  I  humbly  beg  your 
pardon  for  so  doing." 

"  That's  right ;  beg  my  pardon,  by  all  means.  That 
is  as  it  should  be,"  I  replied,  merrily,  "although,  strict- 
ly speaking,  your  sin  is  not  enormous.  It  seems  to  me 
that  you  must  have  met  with  singularly  unscrupulous 
and  greedy  people,  which  makes  your  generous  inten- 
tions towards  myself  both  plausible  and  forgivable." 

"Then  you  forgive  me?"  he  said,  in  a  low  voice. 

"Yes,  I  do,  mais  ne  recommencez  pas." 

We  passed  out  into  the  gardens,  and  walked  down  a 
path  above  which  long,  drooping  fronds  of  amethystine 
wistaria  rustled  and  swayed,  to  the  spot  where  the  sdis 
was  waiting  with  my  horse.  Before  mounting,  I  turned 
to  my  host  and  held  out  my  hand.  "  Sans  rancune?" 
I  said,  smiling.  "  Sans  rancune,"  he  repeated,  bend- 
ing low  over  it,  and  as  I  trotted  briskly  away  I  saw  his 
bowed  form  outlined  in  sombre  colors  against  the  won- 
derful brightness  of  the  flowering  shrubs  and  plants, 
like  a  mystified  interrogation  mark. 

It  was  past  lunch-time  when  I  arrived  home,  and  the 
heat  was  very  great.  I  dismounted,  and  walked  slowly 
and  a  little  wearily  into  the  house.  It  was  cool  there; 
the  light  was  dim  and  evenly  diffused,  and  the  tinkling 

211 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

of  the  fountain  in  the  patio  fell  gratefully  on  the  ear. 
I  drew  aside  a  great  curtain  embossed  with  a  white- 
and-silver  design  and  entered  a  room  which  I  called 
my  den,  and  which  I  preferred  to  all  the  other  ones  put 
together.  The  walls  were  hung  with  willow-green 
silk  of  a  thick  and  matt  texture,  which  made  a  delicious 
background  for  some  of  my  favorite  pictures — among 
others,  one  of  a  snow-capped  mountain  summit  out- 
lined with  exquisite  softness  against  a  clear,  lemon- 
tinted  sky.  A  huge  eagle  was  swooping  down  towards 
the  glittering  snow,  and  that  was  all;  but  the  execu- 
tion was  masterly,  and  the  sense  of  cold  which  a  mere 
glance  at  it  afforded  one  was  invaluable  in  Egypt's 
brazen  climate.  Willow-green  curtains  shrouded  the 
tall  windows;  the  couches  and  arm-chairs  were  low 
and  broad,  and  a  profusion  of  cut  flowers,  all  pale  yel- 
low and  white,  in  iridescent  crystal  bowls  and  vases 
loaded  the  air  with  perfume. 

I  sat  down  on  one  of  the  couches  after  ringing  the 
bell,  and  when  Paul  entered  I  asked  him  to  bring  me 
some  fruit  and  some  iced  tea,  for  I  was  not  hungry,  and 
the  mere  thought  of  the  dining  or  breakfast  rooms, 
with  their  plate-loaded  sideboards  and  profuse  table 
paraphernalia,  made  me  feel  inclined  to  run  away.  In 
my  little,  green  room  the  glare  and  heat,  the  worry  and 
noise  of  the  outside  world  could  not  enter,  for  which 
mercy  I  was  truly  grateful,  as  I  had  a  splitting  head- 
ache and  longed  for  silence  and  absolute  quiet. 

Late  that  night  I  sat  again  in  my  green  room,  read- 
ing. All  the  windows  had  been  thrown  open  to  admit 
the  cool  air,  blowing  in  over  the  drowsy,  starlit  gardens, 
and  I  was  thoroughly  enjoying  my  peaceful  seclusion 
when  suddenly  Sahla  appeared  with  a  disturbed  ex- 
pression on  his  usually  remarkably  impassive  features, 
and  announced  in  an  awed  and  tremulous  voice  that 

212 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

"  His  Highness  Tewfik  Khedive "  was  in  the  drawing- 
room  and  wished  to  see  me  at  once. 

"The  Khedive!"  I  exclaimed,  greatly  astonished, 
for  his  presence  at  such  an  hour  was  simply  incredible. 

Fred  had  gone  to  Alexandria  the  night  before,  and 
as  it  was  Tewfik  who  had  sent  him  there  he  could  not 
possibly  ignore  the  fact  that  he  was  absent.  Some- 
thing, therefore,  of  quite  extraordinary  importance 
must  have  occurred.  Wondering  what  new  trouble 
was  brewing,  I  hurried  to  the  drawing-room  without 
taking  time  to  exchange  my  loose  white  robe  for  a 
more  correct  attire. 

When  I  entered,  the  Khedive  and  an  elderly  aide- 
de-camp  were  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  room  ear- 
nestly conversing,  but  as  the  faint  rustle  of  my  skirts 
reached  their  ears  they  turned  towards  me,  as  if  they 
had  both  been  set  upon  one  and  the  same  pivot.  The 
Viceroy's  beard,  hair,  and  eyes  looked  preternatu rally 
black,  thanks  to  the  almost  livid  pallor  of  his  round, 
full  face,  and  his  voice  was  hoarse  and  constrained  as 
he  greeted  me. 

I  waved  my  hand  towards  a  divan,  and  he  sat  down, 
a  curious,  indefinite  patch  of  black  in  the  dimly  lighted 
room,  his  aide-de-camp  remaining  standing  at  some 
distance. 

"I  am  afraid  I  am  intruding  in  a  fashion  quite  be- 
yond pardon,"  he  said,  in  his  perfect  but  somewhat 
slow  French. 

"Not  at  all." 

"I  am  in  a  cruel  dilemma,"  he  continued,  more 
smoothly,  "and  it  would  have  been  imperative  for  me 
to  consult  your  husband,  but,  failing  him,  I  came  to 
you,  whom  I  know  I  can  trust  implicitly,  and  who  also 
are  cognizant  of  all  my  miserable  affairs." 

There  was  nothing  regal  in  my  august  interlocutor's 

213 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

appearance  as  he  almost  crouched  on  the  broad,  crim- 
son divan,  looking  more  like  an  obsequious  merchant 
of  the  bazaar  than  a  mighty  potentate. 

"  What  can  I  do  to  help  you,  Monseigneur?" 

I  spoke  with  blunt  directness,  staring  him  full  in  the 
eyes,  with  a  hope  of  compelling  him  to  come  at  once  to 
the  point  instead  of  meandering  off  into  long  and  ex- 
haustive lamentation,  as  was  his  wont  when  worried. 

He  hesitated  before  replying,  for  to  give  a  truthful 
and  plain  answer  was  always  difficult  to  him,  and  to 
give  an  untruthful  one  would  have  been  worse  than 
useless  in  so  obviously  pressing  a  case.  At  last  he 
said,  drawing  a  long  slip  of  paper  from  an  inner  pocket 
of  his  stambouline : 

"  Read  what  I  have  just  received  and  tell  me  what  I 
am  to  do." 

A  glance  at  the  printed  words  showed  me  that  there 
was,  after  all,  real  gravity  in  the  situation,  but  that 
the  Khedive's  ordinary  lack  of  coolness  and  of  reso- 
lution were  after  all  the  most  dangerous  factors  which 
it  possessed.  All  this  passed  through  my  mind  very 
rapidly,  and  at  the  end  of  a  few  seconds  I  leaned  back 
in  my  chair  and  said,  quietly : 

"I  think,  Monseigneur,  that  you  exaggerate  the  diffi- 
culties of  this  new  incident,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  say 
so." 

"Exaggerate!"  shrieked  Tewfik,  straightening  him- 
self and  raising  his  clinched  fists  above  his  head  in 
a  dramatic  and  almost  ludicrous  fashion.  "  Why,  my 
throne,  .  .  .  nay,  my  very  life,  are  no  longer  worth  a 
moment's  purchase.  Everybody  betrays  me,  abandons 
me,  tries  to  make  me  do  the  wrong  thing,  take  the  wrong 
decision  1  I  cannot  trust  even  my  ministers.  I  hardly 
dare  to  take  a  cup  of  coffee  outside  the  harim'lik  for 
fear  of  being  poisoned.  The  foreign  diplomatists  ac- 

214 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

credited  to  my  court  make  sport  of  me — and  now  comes 
this  terrible  threat!" 

He  paused  an  instant  to  mop  the  perspiration  from 
his  brow,  and,  without  giving  me  time  to  put  in  a  word, 
continued,  in  the  same  wild  strain : 

"Do  you  know  that  I  am  being  attacked  before  the 
English  House  of  Commons  with  unexampled  viru- 
lence, and  that  evidently  nothing  will  satisfy  its  mem- 
bers save  my  deposition?  No  man,  I  suppose — no  sov- 
ereign, surely — likes  to  be  accused  of  the  crimes  which 
are  being  constantly  laid  at  my  door — crimes  so  hope- 
lessly and  sordidly  petty,"  he  concluded,  almost  in 
tears  and  his  fat  face  growing  yet  a  shade  paler, 
"that  none  but  a  craven  would  dream  of  committing 
them." 

I  crossed  my  hands  deliberately  one  over  the  other, 
for  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  wait  with  what  resig- 
nation I  could  muster  until  this  man,  who  had  for  the 
time  being  evidently  quite  lost  his  mental  equipoise, 
should  have  spoken  himself  out.  In  his  corner  of  the 
big  room  the  aide-de-camp  stood  as  motionless  as  a 
statue,  and,  apparently,  as  deaf  and  as  dumb  also,  for 
not  a  muscle  of  his  bronzed  face  moved,  and  his  eyes 
were  unluminous  and  dull  as  those  of  a  slumbering 
reptile.  An  uncanny  man  at  best  of  times  was  Araki 

M t  Bey,  and  peculiarly  unpleasant  to  gaze  upon 

just  then. 

"I  am  being  treated,"  the  Khedive  rattled  on,  "as  a 
knave  and  a  fool!  They  make  me  out  to  be  a  sort  of 
tragic  ass,  a  mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  half  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent parties;  even  my  own  father  conspires  against 
me — longs  to  overthrow  me !  Can  you  deny  that  such 
is  the  case?  It  was  reported  to  me  that  you  saw  him 
at  Naples,  and  he  must  surely  then  have  given  vent  to 
his  hatred  against  me.  Deny  it  if  you  can!" 

215 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

This  was  decidedly  going  too  far,  and  my  temper — 
never  of  the  best — was  slowly  rising. 

"  Your  father,  Monseigneur/'  I  said,  coldly,  meas- 
uring out  my  words  with  elaborate  care,  so  as  to  give 
him  neither  too  little  nor  too  much  of  the  medicine  he 
needed,  "never  even  pronounced  the  name  of  Your 
Highness,  either  to  my  husband  or  to  me,  and  I  wish 
to  respectfully  remind  you  of  the  fact  that  there  should 
be  no  mention  of  disloyalty  before  the  wife  of  a  man 
who  has  been  of  far  more  than  sterling  honesty  and 
staunchness  to  yourself,  Monseigneur." 

There  was  a  note  of  warning  and  disapproval  in  my 
voice  which  made  him  wince. 

"Pray  forgive  me,"  he  said,  humbly.  "I  was  not 
alluding  to  your  husband,  of  course.  I  am  almost 
beside  myself,  and  do  not  know  what  I  am  saying/' 

"  Well,  Monseigneur,  I  am  of  opinion  that  it  might 
be  wise  to  cease  looking  backward — for  the  moment,  at 
least — and  to  try  and  decide  what  would  be  best  for 
you,  Sir,  to  do  in  the  immediate  present."  I  unclasped 
my  hands,  took  a  cigarette  from  the  silver  box  on  the 
table,  and  began  to  smoke,  looking  straight  at  him, 
after  having  silently  offered  him  a  soothing  weed,  which 
he  as  silently  accepted. 

I  felt  intensely  provoked  with  this  weak  and  vacil- 
lating man,  who  had  reached  the  point  where  he  found 
it  necessary  to  rely  upon  the  strength  and  sagacity  of 
a  mere  woman,  a  stranger  to  his  race  and  kin.  He 
seemed  really  to  be  on  the  verge  of  hysterics,  and,  ris- 
ing, began  to  walk  distractedly  about  the  room,  to  the 
imminent  peril  of  the  fragile  furniture  standing  in  his 
way !  After  a  silent  scrutiny  of  his  convulsed  face,  I, 
too,  rose,  and  catching  up  with  him,  laid  my  hand  on 
his  arm  with  a  decision  which  brought  him  to  an  im- 
mediate stand-still. 

216 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"There  really  is  nothing  in  the  despatch  you  just 
showed  me  to  put  you  in  such  a  state,  Monseigneur/' 
I  said,  somewhat  roughly,  noticing  that  his  lips 
twitched  curiously,  and  that  tears  actually  stood  in  his 
eyes.  I  was  in  no  wise  minded  to  let  him  give  way 
entirely,  and  I  saw  at  once  that  my  energetic  treat- 
ment was  taking  effect,  for  the  passion  that  had  dis- 
figured him,  suddenly  died  out,  and,  sinking  down  in  a 
chair,  he  began  to  speak  more  quietly. 

"Help  me,"  he  said,  imploringly.  "You  must  see 
that  I  am  not  able  to  judge  for  myself.  I  have  just 
peeped  through  the  open  doors  of  Hell !  Have  patience 
with  me!" 

I  was  touched  by  his  overpowering  distress  and  hu- 
miliation, and  sitting  down  beside  him,  I  spoke  sooth- 
ingly and  encouragingly.  When  I  found,  after  a 
while,  that  he  was  calmer  and  could  assimilate  a  strong- 
er diet,  I  passed  on  to  the  incident  which  had  brought 
him  to  seek  my  inefficient  advice.  Long  and  earnestly 
I  whispered,  trying  to  make  him  realize  that  pluck  and 
determination  could  alone  meet  the  situation,  and  that 
under  no  circumstance  should  he  let  himself  be  induced 
to  try  and  conciliate  everybody.  At  last  he  raised  his 
head  with  something  like  energy,  and  in  a  firmer  voice 
said: 

"I  think  and  feel  that  you  are  wholly  right,  but 
would  you  mind  drafting  the  reply  to  this  quasi  ulti- 
matum for  me?  I  will  never  be  able  to  do  it  right. 
Would  to  God  that  you  were  a  man,  and  that  I  might 
make  you  my  Prime-Minister!"  he  added,  with  absolute 
gravity. 

To  save  my  life  I  could  not  help  laughing,  although 
I  felt  irritated  enough  to  have  cheerfully  boxed  my 
illustrious  visitor's  ears. 

"  This  is  not  very  flattering  for  our  dear  friend,  R  .  .  z 

217 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Pasha/'  I  replied,  rising  and  walking  to  a  small  escri- 
toire. 

"He  has  been  behaving  like  a  fool  lately,"  was  the 
consolatory  rejoinder,  and  I  was  still  laughing  as  I 
bent  over  a  sheet  of  paper  and  began  to  ply  my  pen  in- 
dustriously, the  whole  situation  seemed  so  ridiculous! 
Nevertheless  my  fighting  spirit  was  up  in  arms,  and 
I  burnished,  sharpened,  and  honed  my  style  until  I 
produced  a  counter  -  ultimatum  which  I  flattered  my- 
self was  tolerably  ingenious  in  its  specious  wording. 
I  fixed  my  attention  fiercely  on  the  matter  in  hand,  and 
when  I  had  brought  my  task  to  a  satisfactory  conclu- 
sion I  again  laughed  softly  to  myself,  but  this  time 
with  pleasure. 

When  I  handed  the  closely  written  pages  to  Tewfik 
he  read  them  twice  over  in  silence,  his  look  of  laborious 
attention  making  him  appear  as  if  he  were  the  core  of 
a  world  that  spun  like  a  zoetrope  around  him,  for  he 
gazed  at  the  paper  which  he  held  in  his  shaking  hand 
with  eyes  that  were  full  of  amazement,  and  even  of 
that  fear  which  seizes  the  imagination  when  encom- 
passed by  the  violence  of  a  radical  change. 

At  last  he  spoke,  with  a  sort  of  awed  distinctness. 
"  I  shall  have  this  sent  at  once,"  he  said,  rising.  "  It 
is  a  masterpiece;  but  will  they  ever  believe  that  I  com- 
posed it?" 

"  What  does  that  matter?"  I  rejoined,  with  airy  malice. 
"You  will  sign  it,  will  you  not?  Surely  that  ought  to 
suffice." 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so,"  he  said,  glancing  around  as  if 
looking  for  some  one  to  praise  the  heroism  of  his  reso- 
lution. All  at  once  a  strange  light  of  enthusiasm 
leaped  up  in  his  until  then  piteously  drawn  face.  "  I 
will  try  to  follow  this  policy  to  the  end — indeed  I  will/' 
he  exclaimed,  the  fire  of  excitement  burning  in  his  eyes. 

218 


A   DOFFED   CORONET  , 

"Perhaps  it  will  mean  success;  but  there  are  many 
who  will  want  to  murder  me/'  and  his  face  turned  as 
gray  as  ashes  at  the  thought  of  so  horrible  a  possibility. 

"  Allans  done,  Monseigneur,  ne  faiblissez  done  pas 
comme  cela ;  tons  les  Rois  courent  les  memes  risques !" 

The  Viceroy  looked  down  on  the  floor  and  made  no 
answer.  The  Arab  proverb  which  says  that  "those 
who  can  rouse  a  sleeping  cat  can  also  make  it  sleep 
again/'  shot  through  my  mind.  Why  had  I  gone  to 
the  trouble  of  momentarily  arousing  him  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  what  a  monarch  really  should  be?  What  folly 
it  all  was!  Truly,  I  was  sorely  tempted  for  a  minute 
to  undo  the  work  of  the  past  two  hours  at  one  blow. 

His  mood,  however,  had  meanwhile  changed  again, 
for  he  had  squared  his  shoulders,  and  in  a  tone  of  as- 
tonishingly martial  virility  said,  decisively: 

"  Henceforward,  madame,  I  will  fear  nothing !  Good- 
night, and  a  thousand  thanks.  I  really  do  not  know 
how  to  express  my  gratitude  and  my  admiration.  They 
are  both  limitless/' 

"You  will  please  me  best  by  saying  nothing  about 
either,"  I  replied,  a  little  stiffly,  for  the  chameleonic 
propensities  of  this  pinchbeck  sovereign  were  begin- 
ning to  get  on  my  nerves,  and  I  was  anxious  to  see  him 
take  his  leave.  "  I  will  ring  for  Your  Highness's  car- 
riage," I  continued,  taking  a  step  towards  the  bell. 

"I  walked  here.  There  would  have  been  too  much 
danger  of  my  being  recognized  had  I  driven  from  the 
palace,"  was  his  surprising  reply,  as  he  sauntered 
towards  the  door,  but  before  reaching  it  he  suddenly 
turned  back  and  added,  uneasily :  "  I  would  be  greatly 
distressed  if  I  thought  that  Mahmoud  Bey  should  ever 
find  out  that  I  have  been  here  to-night.  He,  more  than 
any  one  else,  must  be  kept  in  ignorance  of  my  visit  to 
you." 

219 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Why  he  more  than  any  one  else?"  I  could  not  help 
exclaiming. 

"  Because  he  is  no  friend  of  yours,  nor  of  your  hus- 
band's either;  in  fact,  if  I  had  believed  him — "  He 
paused,  pursing  his  lips  and  looking  at  me  furtively 
out  of  the  corners  of  his  eyes,  evidently  furious  with 
himself  for  having  said  so  much ;  but  this  was  a  clew 
which  I  did  not  propose  to  let  slip  by,  and  with- 
out the  slightest  regard  for  the  frown  of  displeasure 
which  now  drew  together  Tewfik's  august  brow,  I  ask- 
ed him  peremptorily  what  Mahmoud  had  said  against 
Fred.  He  hummed  and  hawed  and  took  refuge  behind 
some  incoherent  sentences  about  "petty  jealousies," 
but  the  more  I  watched  his  expression  of  demure  art- 
fulness the  more  I  became  determined  to  get  at  the 
bottom  of  this  new  phase  of  Mahmoud's  machinations. 
"  If  I  ever  can  nail  my  suspicions  upon  him,"  I  thought, 
"  I'll  show  him  the  time  of  day,"  and  aloud  I  said,  firmly : 

"  Monseigneur,  I  must  ask  you,  as  a  personal  favor, 
to  tell  me  the  truth  about  this.  Be  assured  that  I  have 
very  serious  reasons  for  speaking  as  I  do." 

Possibly  the  Khedive  resented  the  veiled  command 
of  the  words,  but  he  dared  not  rebel. 

"Oh,"  he  said,  irritably,  "I  am  sorry  to  have  said 
anything  about  it ;  it  was  but  yet  another  of  my  foolish 
impulses,  as  you  must  see  for  yourself.  Mahmoud  mere- 
ly once  gave  me  to  understand  that  your  husband  was 
not  .  .  .  quite  trustworthy,  .  .  .  was,  in  short,  .  .  .  un- 
scrupulous ...  in  certain  matters,  .  .  .  but  please  re- 
member that  I  did  not  give  the  slightest  credence  to 
this  accusation  ...  to  this  preposterous  accusation,  I 
may  say." 

"Thank  you,"  I  replied,  unable  to  repress  a  sneer. 
"  Was  this  accusation  made  in  connection  with  valu- 
ables of  considerable  importance,  by  any  chance?" 

220 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

The  Khedive  started  as  if  touched  with  a  red-hot 
iron.  His  lips  quivered,  partly  with  fear  and  partly 
with  rage,  and  a  gleam  of  terror  shot  from  his  eyes. 

"I  do  not  know  what  you  mean,  my  lady,"  he  stam- 
mered. "  Upon  my  honor,  I  don't.  Mahmoud  is  not  a 
man  I  choose  to  anger ;  he  is  very  dangerous — very  dan- 
gerous indeed,  so  you  will  not  force  me  to  say  more 
than  I  mean  .  .  .  more  than  I  know,  or  than  there  is  to 
tell,  that  is." 

I  listened  imperturbably.  I  knew  enough  to  make  it 
now  possible  for  me  to  act,  and  as  I  realized,  moreover, 
that  Tewfik  would  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  utter  an- 
other word  on  the  subject,  I  said,  simply: 

"I  would  not  for  the  world  trouble  you,  Sir,  just 
now  with  this  little  problem,  although  the  action  of 
Mahmoud  Bey  bears  an  ugly  name,  and  comes  with- 
in the  scope  of  the  law.  Libel  is  bad  enough,  criminal 
libel  is  worse!  However,  I  may,  at  any  rate,  assure 
you  that  I  will  not  refer  to  the  subject  again  until  I  am 
in  a  better-informed  position,  and  meanwhile  I  do  not 
mind  also  promising  you,  Monseigneur,  while  I  am 
about  it,  that  what  you  told  me  just  now  I  will  not  men- 
tion to  my  husband,  who  certainly  would  not  accept  it 
tamely." 

He  drew  a  deep  sigh  of  relief  and  the  frown  disap- 
peared as  if  by  magic,  together  with  the  tone  of  childish 
exasperation  which  had  characterized  his  last  remarks. 

"You  are  very  kind,  very  generous;  I  will  not  for- 
get all  you  are  doing  for  me,"  he  said,  quickly.  "  No- 
body ever  understood  me  so  perfectly  and  completely 
as  you  understand  me.  Thank  you  again  and  again." 

We  were  by  that  time  on  the  terrace,  and  a  faint 
lightening  of  the  violet  sky  in  the  east  heralded  the 
approach  of  dawn. 

"We  must  hurry,"  exclaimed  Tewfik,  turning  to 

221 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

his  wooden  aide-de-camp,  who  had  fallen  into  step  and 
was  following  close  at  our  heels.  "  May  Allah  be  with 
us  and  prevent  my  being  discovered  outside  the  palace. 
How  could  I  explain  my  conduct!" 

I  slightly  raised  my  shoulders  in  indication  that  I — 
even  I  —  could  not  suggest  a  fitting  subterfuge,  and 
watched  him  hasten  away  under  the  darkness  of  the 
trees  with  genuine  amusement. 

"  Et  maintenant  &  nous  deux,  Maitre  Mahmoud,"  I 
murmured,  as  I  reascended  the  steps,  bitter  thoughts 
chasing  away  all  my  humorous  appreciation  of  Tew- 
fik  Khedive's  wonderful  instability  and  lightning-like 
shiftiness.  A  white  wrath  came  upon  me  as  the  white 
squall  descends  upon  my  own  Breton  coast,  its  livid 
hue  of  destruction  making  one  feel  that  perchance  hell 
itself  is  white,  and  that  Dor6's  conceptions  of  the  horri- 
ble ice-fields  of  Hades  are  drawn  from  life. 

I  slept  but  little,  and  was  up  bright  and  early,  having 
at  last  decided  what  I  would  do.  I  do  not  mind  con- 
fessing that  I  had  passed  many  hours  in  mental  con- 
flict concerning  my  future  conduct  with  regard  to 
Mahmoud.  It  would  have  been  a  blessed  and  sacred 
duty  to  me  to  unmask  the  lying  hound  who  had 
tried,  and  was  trying  still,  no  doubt,  to  wrong  Fred  so 
grievously ;  but  I  had  also  a  more  complex  task  than 
that  before  me. 

"  Calomniez,  calomniez,  il  en  restera  toujours  quel- 
quechose,"  rightfully  says  the  proverb,  for  calumny  is 
a  deadly  weapon,  and  the  wounds  it  inflicts  fester  for- 
ever, like  a  cancerous  growth  which  nothing  can  eradi- 
cate. It  would  be  easy  for  me  to  expose  Mahmoud  and 
his  deeds  to  his  sovereign,  but  Tewfik  feared  the  man, 
and  if  he  considered  redress  at  all,  radical  indeed  would 
be  the  means  that  would  suggest  themselves  to  him. 
On  the  other  hand,  if  the  matter  became  public,  forever 

222 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  ever  afterwards  my  husband's  name — the  name 
I  myself  now  bore — would  be  coupled  with  the  history 
of  a  peculiarly  cowardly  and  ugly  theft,  and  although 
he  was  as  innocent  as  an  unborn  child,  yet  the  world 
would  brand  him  unhesitatingly  with  a  more  or  less 
heavy  share  in  an  ignominy.  And  what  also  of  the 
secrecy  of  his  mission?  Was  that  to  be  shouted  from 
Dan  to  Beersheba  by  a  hundred  thousand  eager  throats? 
"  The  whiter  the  wall,  the  greater  the  stain  made  upon 
it  by  falling  mud,"  I  muttered  to  myself  as  I  stepped 
out  of  my  room  and  walked  slowly  to  where  my  horse 
was  waiting.  "No,  no;  I  must  deal  with  him  alone, 
and  seek  help  from  nobody.  That  is  the  only  safe 
way." 

The  roses  were  all  aglow  on  the  lawns  around  the 
house,  and  the  sunbeams  danced  in  the  marble  foun- 
tains as  I  rode  out  of  my  own  grounds  and  walked  my 
horse  under  the  shade  of  the  trees  lining  the  avenue, 
and  I  sadly  reflected  that  it  was  really  unduly  warm  for 
this  season  of  the  year,  even  in  Cairo.  Mahmoud  had 
kept  away  from  my  house  ever  since  our  return  from 
England,  and  before  our  departure  had  only  called  twice, 
when  he  was  sure  to  find  plenty  of  people  there,  which 
made  me  inclined  to  think  that  he  dreaded  to  meet 
me  alone.  This  being  the  case,  it  would  be  difficult  for 
me  to  corner  him,  as  it  was  now  my  intention  to  do, 
for  I  could  not,  of  course,  summon  him  without  giving 
him  to  understand  that  I  had  some  very  good  reason 
for  doing  so,  which  certainly  would  be  most  unadvis- 
able.  I  had,  therefore,  to  meet  him  on  neutral  ground, 
and  in  a  place  where  he  could  not  escape  me.  This 
was  what  I  was  about  to  attempt. 

I  rode  slowly  towards  the  Kazr-el-Nil  bridge,  but  as 
soon  as  I  had  crossed  the  river  and  left  my  sdis  be- 
hind me  I  set  off  at  a  smart  hand-gallop  along  the 

223 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

broad  and  shady  road  leading  to  the  Khedive's  sum- 
mer palace,  whither  most  of  the  officials  of  the  House- 
hold had  already  moved  in  anticipation  of  his  arrival 
on  that  very  same  evening. 

I  had  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  Mahmoud  would 
be  there,  organizing  his  "  Gracious  Master's  "  private 
chancellerie,  as  it  was  his  wont  to  do,  and  I  there- 
fore headed  straight  for  that  portion  of  the  great  build- 
ing where  the  viceregal  apartments  were  situated. 

All  the  windows  were  wide  open,  and  from  the  back 
of  my  sixteen-hander  I  could  plainly  see  that  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  bustle  was  going  on  within,  where 
a  host  of  servants  were  hurrying  to  and  fro,  carrying 
boxes  and  cases,  or  moving  furniture  from  place  to 
place  under  the  direction  of  solemn-looking  gentle- 
men whose  stamboulines  made  black  blotches  upon 
the  general  brightness  of  the  gorgeous  salons,  or  of 
much -gilded  officers,  jingling  their  spurs  upon  the 
polished,  inlaid  floors. 

In  the  embrasure  of  a  deeply  embayed  window,  pro- 
fusely garlanded  with  azure  and  white  passiflora,  I  at 
last  caught  sight  of  a  broad  back  and  a  slim  waist, 
easily  recognizable  as  belonging  to  friend  Mahmoud, 
and,  bending  sideways  out  of  my  saddle,  I  succeeded 
in  touching  his  gold-laced  shoulder  sharply  with  the 
end  of  my  riding -crop.  He  faced  round  with  an 
alarmed  gesture,  which  left  no  doubt  as  to  the  uneasi- 
ness of  his  conscience,  and  when  he  saw  who  had  played 
this  merry  little  prank  upon  him  his  joy  was  neither 
overwhelming  nor  convincing. 

"Why,  my  dearest  lady,  can  I  believe  my  eyes?  Is 
this  really  your  own  charming  self?  This  is  a  surprise, 
indeed!"  he  cried,  with  a  twisted  smile  which  it  must 
have  hurt  him  to  produce. 

"  Your  eyes  are  quite  trustworthy,  for  it  is  really  my 

224 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

own  charming  self,  my  dear  Bey,  and  what  will  no 
doubt  please  you  still  more  is  that  you  can  do  me  a  ser- 
vice !  One  of  my  horse's  shoes  is,  I  fear,  loosened,  and 
if  you  will  send  me  somebody  to  see  whether  such  is 
the  case  I  will  dismount  and  grant  you  the  delight  of 
my  presence  while  the  damage  is  being  repaired." 

"Mais  comment  done,  chdre  madame!"  he  replied, 
with  empressement,  and  he  vanished  from  the  window 
to  reappear  almost  immediately  at  my  side,  followed  by 
a  footman,  who  took  possession  of  my  horse  and  led 
him  away  to  the  stables  and  the  farrier's  domain. 

Mahmoud  gallantly  offered  me  his  arm — which  I  de- 
clined with  thanks — and  proposed  that  we  should  stroll 
through  the  gardens. 

"Oh,  dear,  no,"  I  said,  peremptorily.  "I  am  abom- 
inably warm.  Is  there  not  a  cool  and  secluded  corner 
of  this  establishment  where  we  can  sit  down  and  smoke 
a  cigarette  in  peace?" 

"Certainly,  of  course  there  is,  and  if  you  will  gra- 
ciously excuse  the  confusion  necessary  to  the  occasion 
I  will  conduct  you  to  Monseigneur's  study,  which  is 
the  only  room  where  work  of  some  sort  is  not  in  prog- 
ress." 

"That  will  suit  me  admirably,"  I  replied,  following 
him  into  that  apartment,  which  was  entered  from  the 
gardens  through  a  glass -domed  antechamber  lined 
with  tropical  plants,  where,  in  gigantic  cages  of  sil- 
vered wire,  green  parakeets,  rose-crested  cockatoos, 
and  scarlet-robed  cardinals  disported  themselves  noisily. 

The  blinds  were  partly  drawn  down,  and  although 
there  was  plenty  of  light,  yet  it  was  of  a  subdued  and 
refreshing  quality,  most  soothing  after  the  fatiguing 
glare  outside,  and  I  sank  with  a  little  sigh  of  content 
into  the  depths  of  an  uncommonly  comfortable  arm- 
chair and  lit  a  cigarette. 
15  225 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Aren't  you  going  to  sit  down?"  I  asked  of  the  aide- 
de-camp,  who  was  fidgeting  around,  and  who  all  of  a 
sudden  seemed  to  have  grown  extraordinarily  awk- 
ward and  embarrassed. 

"You  are  delivered  into  my  hands,  oh,  mine  enemy!" 
I  thought,  with  a  little  inward  laugh,  as  I  watched  him 
drag  a  dainty,  gilded  chair — quite  inadequate  to  his 
weight — opposite  to  me;  and,  aloud,  I  continued: 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  how  glad  I  am  to  have  found  you 
here  this  morning.  It  has  been  my  wish  to  speak  to 
you  alone  for  some  time  past,  and  I  consider  it  as  quite 
providential  that  Heliogabalus  —  Heliogabalus  is  my 
horse — should  have  almost  cast  a  shoe,  since  it  pro- 
cures me  this  t&e-fctete." 

A  smirk  of  extreme  fatuity  coarsened  his  features, 
and  I  nearly  laughed  aloud  at  the  keenness  of  his  mis- 
apprehension. 

"I  am  indeed  gratified,"  he  murmured,  with  a  half- 
bewildered,  half-sentimental  glance.  "You  cannot 
doubt  the  joy  which  your  words  give  me." 

"Well,"  I  said,  reflectively,  "it  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  your  joy  will  be  lasting,  for,  unfortunately, 
my  dear  Bey,  I  have  a  thing  or  two  to  tell  you  which 
the  most  sanguine  of  men  could  not  construe  into  a 
declaration  of  love." 

"Whatever  may  fall  from  your  adorable  lips  will 
be  a  delight  for  me  to  hear,  I  assure  you,"  he  stated, 
with  an  impassioned  gaze  of  such  meritorious  insin- 
cerity that  I  softly  clapped  my  hands  as  a  tribute  to  his 
histrionic  talents. 

He  shifted  his  chair  uneasily,  and  his  olive  skin 
darkened  to  a  dull,  angry  red.  It  was  easy  to  see  that 
if  he  could  have  done  so  he  would  have  shown  me  a 
clean  pair  of  heels,  but  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  es- 
cape me  now,  and  I  perceived  that  he  was  afraid,  with 

226 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

that  fear  which  conceals  itself  under  an  assumption  of 
great  ease  and  exaggerated  familiarity.  He  moved 
his  large,  well-shod  feet  nervously,  then  drew  a  jew- 
elled cigarette-case  from  his  pocket,  and,  opening  it 
with  a  flourish,  offered  it  to  me.  I  was  no  longer  in 
the  mood,  however,  for  small  courtesies,  so  I  waved 
this  proffered  olive  -  branch  unceremoniously  away, 
and  said,  very  quietly: 

"I  think  that  we  need  not  keep  our  masks  on  any 
longer.  The  game  is  up,  Mahmoud  Bey!" 

His  broad  chest  rose  and  fell  as  if  breath  were  failing 
him,  and  the  hand  which  still  held  the  glittering  case 
towards  me  trembled;  but  he  remained  silent,  and  I 
continued,  without  raising  my  voice  or  showing  the 
least  sign  of  anger : 

"Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  that  I  saw  through  you 
from  the  first,  and  that  when  you  came,  three  months 
or  so  ago,  to  look  for  a  jewel  which  you  had  purposely 
left  behind  you,  I  was  not  entirely  duped  by  the  clever 
little  comedy  you  played  for  my  especial  benefit?" 

"I  do  not  know  what  you  mean,  my  dearest  lady," 
he  interrupted,  with  a  laugh,  which  rattled  strangely 
in  his  throat.  "What  grounds  have  you  for  speaking 
as  you  do?" 

"The  very  best,  and  with  your  kind  permission  I 
will  tell  you  what  they  are." 

"I  am  curious  to  know  what  they  are,"  he  replied, 
with  an  abortive  attempt  at  a  sneer. 

"  Very  well,  then ;  I  am  glad  to  be  in  a  position  to 
fully  satisfy  you  on  that  score.  Now,  to  begin  with, 
I  happen  to  know  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  frauds  which 
you  have  practised  on  the  Khedive — in  order  to  procure 
the  money  to  pander  to  your  many  and  admirably 
decadent  vices — including  that  of  the  Countess  de 

M o's  emeralds,  to  which  I  alluded  very  trans- 

227 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

parently  on  the  occasion  of  your  pretended  loss  of  the 
famous  Collier  de  la  Favorite." 

Mahmoud  was  for  the  moment  so  completely  taken 
aback  by  this  straight  blow  that  he  lost  all  his  swag- 
ger, all  his  power  of  inexhaustible  falsehood,  and  re- 
mained silent,  biting  his  lips  until  the  mark  of  his  teeth 
showed  lividly  against  their  already  almost  complete 
absence  of  color. 

"You  are  an  unutterable  scoundrel,  Mahmoud  Bey, 
but  that,  of  course,  is  none  of  my  business,  and  as  I 
told  you  once  before,  as  long  as  you  left  me  and  mine 
alone  I  was  prepared  to  remain  a  silent  spectator  of 
your  varied  and  multiform  villanies.  I  gave  you,  how- 
ever, a  fair,  if  indirect,  warning  that  you  would  have 
to  stop  short  of  meddling  with  Fred's  affairs,  and  it 
is  a  great  pity  that  you  should  have  disregarded  the 
advice!" 

The  man  was  evidently  in  a  sort  of  stupor,  staring 
fixedly  at  the  smoked  -  out  cigarette,  which  was  be- 
ginning to  discolor  his  fingers.  Truly,  he  had  not  even 
presence  of  mind  enough  left  to  defend  himself.  The 
harassing  torment  of  his  compulsory  submission  to 
me  made  him  grind  his  teeth,  as  I  could  see  by  the  con- 
tinual slow  movement  of  his  prominent  jaw;  but  still 
he  said  nothing,  for  he  saw  without  the  possibility  of 
a  doubt  that  I  was  one  too  many  for  him,  and  his  help- 
less and  wordless  revolt  was  a  disgusting  spectacle. 
The  low-bred  ruffianism  which  was  his  true  inner  man 
became  painfully  apparent,  and  if  wishes  could  kill  I 
would  assuredly  have  fallen  dead  where  I  sat. 

"  You  left  the  collar  behind  you,  as  I  just  said,  so  as 
to  be  able,  if  ever  it  came  to  be  discovered  that  you  had 
ultimately  replaced  its  magnificent  jewels  by  worthless 
paste,  to  fasten  the  guilt  on  my  husband,  God  forgive 
you!" 

228 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  It  is  false ! "  he  cried,  with  a  tremor  in  his  voice,  which 
was  partly  impotent  rage,  but  chiefly  intolerable  fear. 

"  Oh,  not  at  all ;  I  have  all  the  facts  in  hand,  down  to 
the  very  name  of  the  merchant  to  whom  you  sold  the 
genuine  stones." 

"Who  told  you  all  this?" 

"  That  does  not  in  the  least  concern  you,  my  friend. 
Let  it  suffice  that  I  know  it,  and  what  is  more,  I  know 
also  where  the  stolen  gems  are,  and  can  produce  them 
at  a  moment's  notice.  When  you  began  to  plot 
against  my  husband  you  did  a  dangerous  thing,  for 
I  then  determined  to  make  you  smart  for  the  new  in- 
famy you  were  rendering  yourself  guilty  of,  and  I 
patiently  forged  the  chain  by  which  I  now  hold  you 
securely  and  strongly." 

"  Don't  be  too  sure  of  holding  me,"  he  said,  insolently, 
pulling  himself  together  at  last  by  a  violent  and  des- 
perate effort.  "Whether  you  are  right  or  wrong  in 
accusing  me  matters  not  at  all,  for  your  interest  does 
not  lie  in  exposing  me." 

"I  infinitely  prefer  you  to  defend  yourself,"  I  said, 
scornfully.  "  It  is  unpleasant  to  have  to  hit  a  wet  rag. 
But  let  us  proceed.  You  may  or  you  may  not  know 
that  your  agent,  Luigi  Effendi,  was  caught  red-handed 
by  me  while  tampering  with  secret  papers.  I  never 
thought  of  making  responsible  for  this  the  person  for 
whom  he  believed  that  he  worked,  as  I  immediately 
guessed  that  you  had  only  used  your  master's  name 
in  order  to  induce  the  man  to  become  your  tool,  and  that> 
according  to  your  thrifty  custom,  you  sold  the  news 
thus  obtained  to  the  Khedive,  pluming  yourself  on  your 
extraordinary  ability  in  getting  it,  but  studiously  avoid- 
ing to  tell  him  whom  you  were  betraying  to  do  so. 
For  even  his  callousness  would  have  hesitated  to  tap 
the  information  which  an  honest,  loyal,  and  useful 

229 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

man  was  taking  so  much  pains  to  get  for  him,  and  to 
interfere  with  the  excellent  work  he  was  doing.  When 
you  do  such  things  you  should  not  give  written  orders ; 
they  remain  against  you;  and  they  are  at  present  in 
my  hands,  together  with  the  full,  signed,  and  duly 
attested  confession  of  your  unclean  agent." 

"Stop,  for  mercy's  sake!  I  have  heard  enough!"  he 
almost  shrieked,  shaking  from  head  to  foot  so  violently 
that  his  golden  aiguillettes  rustled  like  leaves  in  a  high 
wind. 

"  Oh  no,  you  have  not.  I  will  tell  you  a  great  deal  more 
before  I  stop.  You  are  pleased  to  despise  the  Khedive 
because  you  can  lead  him  into  mad  follies,  and  because 
you  imagine  that  you  can  go  on  blackmailing  him  for- 
ever. But  Tewfik  is  not  altogether  the  ignoble  dupe 
you  think  him.  He  is  a  dupe — better  men  than  he 
have  been  so — but  he  would  not  countenance  such 
deeds  as  you  have  done  in  his  name.  Now  if  I  went 
to  him  and  showed  him  Luigi  Effendi's  confession, 
and  your  written  instructions  to  b'etray  my  husband's 
trust ;  if,  moreover,  I  placed  in  his  possession  the  gems 
which  you  stole  from  the  necklace  confided  to  your 
care,  and  if  I  also  brought  him  undeniable  proofs  of 
the  fraud  which  you  perpetrated  on  Countess  de 
M o,  you  would  no  longer  find  him  the  malle- 
able fool  you  deem  him,  and  you  would  learn  a  lesson 
which  you  would  not  be  likely  to  have  the  chance  of 
forgetting.  I  have  only  named  three  out  of  the  many 
sins  you  have  committed  against  him,  but  rest  assured 
that  I  have  several  other  cards  in  hand  which  I  can 
play  equally  well  and  equally  effectively.  And  now  it 
rests  with  you  whether  you  want  to  save  your  neck  by 
doing  as  I  bid  you,  or  whether  I  am  to  go  to  the  Khe- 
dive and  disclose  to  him  the  true  character  of  his  faith- 
ful aide-de-camp." 

230 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  What  is  it  you  want  of  me?"  he  groaned. 

I  drew  from  my  pocket  and  passed  to  him  a  few  lines 
which  I  had  written  that  morning  and  brought  with 
me.  They  ran  thus: 

"I,  Mahmoud  Bey,  aide-de-camp  of  His  Highness  Tewfik  Khe- 
dive, do  acknowledge  that  I  changed  the  gems  adorning  the  so- 
called  Collier  de  la  Favorite,  which  had  been  intrusted  to  my 
care,  for  worthless  paste,  and  that  I  sold  the  genuine  stones  and 
appropriated  the  money  thus  fraudulently  obtained." 

"  Sign  it,"  I  said,  curtly. 

"  Never!"  he  cried,  pushing  it  away.  "  Do  you  think 
that  I  am  going  to  sign  my  own  death-warrant?" 

"Don't  be  a  fool,  Mahmoud  Bey!  You  are  clever 
enough  to  understand  that  you  are  in  my  power,  and 
that  you  will  have  to  do  exactly  what  I  tell  you.  More- 
over, you  must  see  for  yourself  that  if  I  wanted  to 
ruin  you  I  would  not  need  that  paper  to  do  so.  I  mere- 
ly wish  to  have  it  as  an  additional  weapon  against 
you,  guaranteeing  your  future  neutrality  in  my  hus- 
band's affairs,  so  you  had  better  sign  it,  and  close 
this  unpleasant  incident  once  and  for  all.  Indeed,  I 
can  assure  you  that  you  will  sign  it,  or  that  you  will 
regret  it  very  greatly." 

"  I  will  not  sign  it,"  he  reiterated,  stubbornly. 

There  was  a  moment's  silence.  Mahmoud's  eyes 
wandered  restlessly  round  the  large  room  like  those 
of  an  animal  at  bay,  for  he  was  beginning  to  perceive 
that  he  would  have  to  obey  me  or  suffer  far  worse  things. 
Suddenly  he  changed  his  tactics,  and  throwing  himself 
at  my  feet  he  implored  me,  with  tears  and  moans — 
quite  nauseating  to  witness — to  spare  him. 

"This  is  becoming  wearisome,  my  good  man,"  I 
said,  drawing  the  edge  of  my  skirt,  which  he  had 
clutched  convulsively,  from  his  grasp.  "  I  have  told 

231 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

you  what  I  shall  do  if  you  do  not  sign  this  paper ;  the 
choice  is  yours  to  make.  Of  course,  if  you  desire  that 
I  should  tell  you  any  more  episodes  of  your  past  similar 
to  those  already  mentioned  I  can  easily  do  so ;  it  might, 
perchance,  hasten  your  decision." 

When  he  had  vainly  used  all  the  resources  of  entreaty 
and  cajolery,  he  rose  at  last  from  his  knees,  as  abject- 
looking  a  human  being  as  I  had  ever  seen,  and,  leaning 
against  the  wall,  he  crossed  his  arms  and  begged  me  to 
give  him  five  minutes  to  reflect.  It  was  granted,  and 
I  waited  with  quiet  patience,  watching  keenly  the 
various  expressions  following  one  another  on  his  dis- 
torted countenance.  At  last  a  singularly  crafty  look 
came  into  his  dark  eyes,  and,  holding  out  his  hand  for 
the  paper,  he  went  to  the  Khedive's  writing-table,  signed 
it,  and  brought  it  to  me  in  silence.  He  was  vanquished, 
cowed,  and  terrified,  but  I  saw  at  one  glance  that  he 
fondly  fancied  he  could  yet  undo  me,  and  so  remained 
on  the  defensive. 

"Thank  you,"  I  said,  coldly;  "and  now,  if  you  are 
ever  tempted  again  to  speak  ill  of  my  husband,  you  will 
please  remember  that  my  silence  is  only  conditional  on 
your  own  good  behavior." 

To  my  intense  astonishment  the  supple  Turk,  instead 
of  heaping  reproaches  upon  me,  took  his  highly  scented 
handkerchief  from  his  sleeve,  deliberately  and  delicate- 
ly mopped  his  damp  brow,  and  then,  with  a  cringing 
smile,  said,  plaintively: 

"You  have  trapped  me  very  cleverly,  but  we  need 
not  be  enemies.  I  confess  myself  beaten.  I  have 
been  a  weak,  sinful  man,  ever  unable  to  withstand 
temptation.  How  can  a  woman  like  you  understand? 
Will  you  be  merciful  now — will  you  forgive  me,  and  let 
me  try  to  redeem  your  good  opinion?" 

I  gazed  at  him  searchingly.  His  attitude  was  diffi- 

232 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

cult  to  explain,  and  I  had,  somehow  or  other,  the  idea 
that  I  was  running  [some  very  decided  and  immediate 
danger,  and  that  it  would  behoove  me  to  keep  my  eyes 
remarkably  wide  open.  I  shrugged  my  shoulders  and 
rose  to  go. 

"You  will  not  leave  like  that?"  he  said,  eagerly. 
"  You  are  not  well ;  this  scene  has  been  too  much  for 
you.  Let  me  at  least  fetch  you  a  glass  of  water,  or  a 
cup  of  coffee/' 

A  light  dawned  upon  me.  "Oh,  oh,"  thought  I, 
"  so  that  is  your  little  game,  you  simpleton,"  and,  turn- 
ing back,  I  deliberately  sat  down  again  and  accepted 
his  offer.  With  suspicious  alacrity  he  left  the  room, 
and  I  fell  to  gently  tapping  the  side  of  my  boot  with  my 
riding-crop,  smiling  a  little  at  what  I  expected  quite 
confidently  would  follow. 

The  silence  was  complete,  save  for  the  quarrelsome 
voices  of  the  South  American  and  Australian  feathered 
tribe  outside  the  door,  and  I  unconsciously  watched 
for  the  fall  of  the  aide-de-camp's  returning  step.  Ten 
minutes  at  least  elapsed  before  he  once  more  entered, 
followed  by  a  Berberine  servant  who  bore  a  small, 
golden  tray  supporting  two  little,  jewelled  cups  of 
fragrant  coffee  and  a  goolah  of  clear  spring-water. 
Mahmoud  himself  drew  forward  a  heavy  ebony  table, 
and,  dismissing  the  servant,  placed  one  of  the  cups — a 
blue-and-gold  one — before  me  with  inviting  promptness. 

"This  will  do  you  good,"  he  murmured,  seating 
himself  opposite  me,  and  drawing  the  other  cup — 
which  was  of  a  deep-rose  color — to  his  side  of  the  tray. 

"  I  am  sure  it  will,"  I  responded,  innocently.  "  Now 
you  can  give  me  a  cigarette,"  and  as  he  turned  to 
pick  up  his  magnificent  cigarette-case,  which,  at  the 
beginning  of  our  encounter,  had  dropped  on  the  floor, 
I  deftly  seized  the  opportunity  to  change  cups  with  him. 

233 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  What  delicious  coffee  you  have  over  here/'  I  said, 
conversationally.  "  I  always  wonder  why  your  method 
of  preparing  it  is  not  more  generally  adopted  in  Europe. " 

"Yes,"  he  replied,  "it  is  very  nice.  I  dote  on  our 
Turkish  coffee,"  and,  suiting  the  action  to  the  words, 
he  raised  the  pretty  little  trinket  to  his  lips.  Before  he 
had  had  time  to  touch  it,  however,  I  said,  fixing  my 
eyes  derisively  upon  his: 

"I  would  not  drink  that  if  I  were  you.  That  is  the 
one  you  meant  for  me!" 

With  a  crash  the  little  cup  dropped  to  the  floor,  and 
he  jumped  to  his  feet,  overthrowing  his  chair,  and 
made  a  dash  at  me. 

"Not  so  fast,  my  friend,"  I  uttered,  calmly.  "You 
did  not  imagine  that  I  came  here  unarmed,  did  you?" 

A  stray  sunbeam  gliding  beneath  one  of  the  blinds 
fell  squarely  on  the  glittering  barrel  of  a  small  "  bull- 
dog "  revolver  within  a  foot  of  his  face,  and  he  recoiled 
with  a  blasphemous  execration.  Truly,  the  man  was 
a  hopeless  rascal,  but  not  an  interesting  or  a  pictur- 
esque one,  for  he  was  very  vulgar,  and  his  methods 
were  lamentably  commonplace.  The  heavy,  black 
villain  of  a  suburban  melodrama — that  was  about  his 
measure — and,  really,  my  gorge  rose  at  his  being  so 
unworthy  of  my  steel. 

"Come  along,"  I  said,  contemptuously,  "and  be 
good  enough  to  precede  me  to  the  door.  You  are  not 
the  sort  of  person  whom  one  likes  to  feel  behind  one's 
back." 

This  last  and  supreme  failure  had  broken  what  was 
left  of  his  nerve,  and  he  obeyed  meekly,  casting  ner- 
vous glances  over  his  shoulder  at  me,  probably  afraid 
that  I  would  accelerate  his  progress  across  the  great 
room  with  the  aid  of  the  weapon  I  still  held  grimly  in 
dangerous  proximity  to  his  worthless  carcass,  or  else 

234 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

put  an  end  to  it  in  a  summary  fashion.  Thoughts 
travel  swiftly  under  such  circumstances,  and  I  reflected 
as  we  passed  en  mondme,  as  it  were,  through  the  ante- 
chamber, where  the  voluble  parrots  were  cursing  each 
other  in  bird-language,  that  for  a  woman  who  had  an 
almost  neurotic  dread  of  the  ridiculous,  I  was  of  late 
singularly  unlucky.  Of  a  truth,  the  little  procession 
we  formed  suggested  a  small  child  driving  a  very  large 
pig  to  market,  and  I  came  within  an  ace  of  laughing 
outright — which  would  have  been  really  very  inde- 
corous. 

Nevertheless,  after  that  long  and  eventful  seance  in 
the  viceregal  study,  the  brilliant  sunshine  was  welcome 
to  me,  and  I  paused  for  a  moment  beside  a  broad  par- 
terre of  velvety  gloxinias  laid  out  on  both  sides  of  the 
private  door  from  which  we  had  emerged,  to  draw  a 
deep  breath  of  relief.  Mahmoud  stood  beside  me  with 
drooping  shoulders,  limp  as  a  rag,  and  vainly  striving 
to  recover  something  of  his  usual  dashing  and  con- 
quering demeanor. 

"  Pray  call  my  horse,"  I  said,  shortly,  and,  I  regret 
to  add,  rather  snappishly,  for  now  that  the  affair 
was  over  I  felt  singularly  irritable,  and,  truth  to  tell, 
experienced  a  somewhat  chilly  sensation.  Indeed,  it  be- 
gan to  appear  to  me — rather  late,  as  usual — that  I  had 
run  some  risks  after  all,  since  no  one  at  home  knew 
where  I  had  gone,  and  only  a  few  native  servants  were 
witnesses  of  my  entrance  into  the  palace. 

Instead  of  doing  as  he  was  bidden,  my  companion 
brusquely  wheeled  round,  exclaiming: 

"Why  did  you  not  shoot  me?  Your  eyes  looked  as 
if  you  would  have  liked  to." 

"My  eyes  told  the  truth,"  I  replied,  "but  the  fact  is 
that  you  are  not  worth  swinging  for ;  and,  moreover, 
if  I  am  to  tell  you  the  exact  state  of  my  mind,  I 

235 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

may  as  well  confess  that  in  spite  of  your  infamous 
and  ignoble  behavior  I  cannot  help  making  some  al- 
lowance for  you,  because  once,  a  long  time  ago,  I 
saw  you  show  kindness  to  a  child  who  had  been 
run  over  by  a  carriage.  You  may  not  remember  the 
circumstance,  but  I  never  forgot  it — I  am  not  one  who 
easily  forgets  anything.  The  little  thing  was  not 
much  hurt,  strange  to  say,  but  was,  of  course,  terrified 
to  the  last  degree.  You  got  off  your  charger  and  picked 
the  miserable  little  wretch  out  of  the  dirt  without  a 
thought  of  its  grimy  condition  or  of  the  exquisiteness  of 
your  uniform,  and  nestled  it  in  your  arms  as  a  mother 
might  have  done.  You  never  looked  better,  in  my 
opinion,  than  when  you  strode  through  the  crowd  which 
had  gathered  around  you,  with  your  azure  tunic  wet 
with  tears  and  blood,  your  white  gloves  caked  with 
dust,  and  your  tarboush  pushed  shamefacedly  over 
your  eyes.  That  is  why,  my  good  man,  I  am  fool 
enough  to  pity  you  even  more  than  I  despise  you." 

"I  don't  understand  you  at  all,  I  really  do  not,"  he 
muttered,  in  a  puzzled  and  bewildered  way,  which  made 
me  smile  in  spite  of  myself,  and  signalling  to  the  groom 
who  was  walking  Heliogabalus  up  and  down  a  neigh- 
boring path,  I  replied,  sincerely: 

"Rest  easy,  you  are  not  the  only  one.  Sometimes 
I  even  do  not  understand  myself." 

He  turned  away  with  a  slight  shudder.  He  was 
still  very  pale,  and  had  lost  all  the  impudent  insouci- 
ance of  his  earlier  manner,  for  he  was  cruelly  humbled, 
but  this  novel  attitude  became  him  better,  as  I  almost 
told  him. 

"The  horse's  shoes  have  been  carefully  examined, 
my  lady,"  said  the  groom,  who  had  now  brought  Helio- 
gabalus to  a  stand-still  before  me.  "  They  were  all  in 
perfect  condition." 

236 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Really/'  I  said,  absent-mindedly,  and  slipping  a 
douceur  into  his  willing  palm,  "I  am  not  surprised  to 
hear  it."  And  without  another  word  to  Mahmoud  I 
lengthened  my  stirrup-leather,  swung  myself  into  the 
saddle,  and  trotted  briskly  away  towards  the  broad, 
blue  Nile — that  beautiful  river  which,  amid  the  level 
monotony  of  Egypt,  kept  at  that  time  still  intact  its 
savage  grandeur,  its  legendary  power,  its  potent  Ori- 
ental charm;  a  tameless,  barbaric  thing,  which  was 
later  to  be  brutally  corseted  with  stone  and  steel  by 
the  engineers  of  a  so-called  progressive  civilization. 

I    had    not    ridden    far    when    I    overtook    Captain 

F e,  who,  clad  from  head  to  foot  in  white  twill, 

and  with  a  most  fetching  solar-topee  set  rakishly  on 
his  yellow  curls,  was  returning  from  an  inspection  of 
the  polo  grounds. 

"  Deuced  glad  to  meet  you,"  quoth  the  "  handsomest 
man  in  the  English  army,"  with  the  insipid  drawl 
which  he  was  pleased  to  consider  both  smart  and  emi- 
nently becoming  to  his  rather  effeminate  style  of 
beauty.  "Beastly  lonely  out  here  in  the  morning, 
'pon  my  word.  May  I  ride  home  with  you?" 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so,"  I  replied,  ungraciously,  but 
without  arousing  the  slightest  feeling  of  resentment  in 
the  breast  of  this  amiable  disciple  of  Mars,  whose  pink- 
and-white  skin  was  of  quite  extraordinary  thickness. 

"  Deuced  nice  habit  that/'  he  continued,  unabashed. 
"Lovely  cool  shade  of  gray;  wish  our  uniforms  were 
made  of  that  stuff.  Is  it  silk?" 

"  No,  it  is  plain  linen ;  not  worthy  of  you,  as  you  see. 
Why  don't  you  write  to  the  War  Office  petitioning  for 
flax-gray  silk  fatigue  uniforms,  with  a  little  sky-blue  or 
pale-pink  embroidery  in  relief,  and  a  nice,  long,  sweep- 
ing feather  in  your  forage-cap?  You  would  be  the 
most  lady-like  soldier  in  Her  Majesty's  service." 

237 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Ah,  now  you're  chaffing;  that  isn't  fair.  You're 
always  chaffing  me.  It  isn't  my  fault  if  I  am  not  coarse- 
grained and  indifferent  to  what  is  becoming.  Why 
should  a  man  neglect  his  personal  appearance  any  more 
than  a  girl  does?  Tell  me  that." 

"  Don't  ask  me  to  answer  conundrums ;  it  is  too  warm 
a  day  for  that  kind  of  pastime,  and  besides  I  have  got 
a  headache." 

"That's  bad.  Try  violet  water  and  extract  of  ver- 
bena when  you  get  home,  three  parts  of  each,  as  a  com- 
press. I  always  use  it;  it  is  wonderful,  and  so  fra- 
grant!" 

I  shrugged  my  shoulders  and  lapsed  into  a  silence 
meditative,  profound,  and  dealing  solely  with  human 
imbecility. 

"I  say,"  continued  the  undaunted  Captain,  "the 
Ccuntess  is  leaving  Cairo  in  a  week  for  Helouan;  she 
is  not  going  to  Europe  this  year;  wants  to  enjoy  her 
flirtation  to  the  top  of  her  bent,  I  suppose,  while  her 
husband  is  in  Carlsbad  for  the  sake  of  his  liver." 

"What  are  you  talking  about?"  I  asked,  greatly 
mystified.  "Madame  S.  .  .a  has  a  flirtation?  You 
must  be  raving!" 

"Not  a  bit  of  it;  it's  the  sad  truth.  The  old  lady 
has  awakened  to  the  manly  charm  and  supreme  re- 
finement of  no  less  a  person  than  your  friend  Mahmoud 
Bey,  and  they  are  cooing  and  billing  all  day  long  in 
the  most  approved  fashion." 

I  checked  my  horse  so  violently  that  he  reared  up  on 
end  with  a  snort  of  disgust. 

"  What  ails  that  brute?"  cried  F e,  who 

was  but  an  ordinary  horseman  and  not  particularly 
stout  of  heart.  "You  seem  to  have  a  preference  for 
ill-tempered  cattle." 

"The  ill-temper  was  distinctly  mine,"  I  replied,  im- 

238 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

patiently ;  "  but  pray  proceed  with  your  story ;  it  bids 
fair  to  be  a  piquant  one." 

The  ingenuous  blue  eyes  of  my  fair  escort  glittered 
with  pleasure  at  my  unwonted  appreciation,  and  he 
resumed  the  thread  of  his  discourse  at  the  point  where 
Heliogabalus  had  interrupted  it. 

"  Well,  you  see  I  went  to  tea  at  Ma  Chaumidre  yes- 
terday, and  found  madame  all  alone  in  her  boudoir. 
When  I  came  in  she  frowned  most  damnably,  and  kept 
looking  at  the  door  over  my  head  after  I  had  sat  down 
near  her  on  a  low  chair,  as  if  I  was  intercepting  her 
view  of  something  interesting.  She  hardly  spoke,  and 
fidgeted  about  on  the  sofa,  jingling  her  bracelets  and 
playing  with  her  chatelaine  in  a  manner  that  made 
me  nervous,  so  I  said :  '  Whom  are  you  expecting — is  it 
the  Count?  Because  if  it  is  I'm  going  away.  I  don't 
like  to  play  gooseberry  to  married  couples." 

"Quod  Deus  conjunxit  non  separet,"  I  muttered, 
under  my  breath. 

"What's  that,  Russian?"  demanded  the  Captain. 

"No,  Chinese.  But  do  proceed;  you  entertain  me 
immensely." 

"Lord,  what  a  linguist  you  are!  But  it  does  sound 
like  Russian,  now,  doesn't  it?" 

"  Oh,  I  dare  say  it  does.  Remarkably  bright  of  you 
to  detect  the  similarity.  What  did  the  Countess  say 
then?" 

"  Well,  she  told  me  that  I  was  quite  correct,  and  that 
she  was  eagerly  expecting  the  Count,  so  I  took  her  hint 
and  rose  to  go  without  waiting  for  tea.  She  did  not 
press  me  to  stay,  and  I  hurried  out  in  a  bit  of  a  huff, 
but  in  the  entrance  hall  I  collided  with  Mahmoud  Bey. 
'  Hallo ! '  I  said, '  don't  go  in ;  she's  in  a  deuce  of  a  tem- 
per, and  waiting  for  her  husband!'  'The  devil  you 
say!'  retorted  that  dark  horse,  plunging  into  the  bou- 

239 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

doir.  Well,  thinks  I,  if  she  can  stand  him  as  a  third, 
why  should  I  not  be  there,  too ;  and  as  I  wanted  my  tea 
I  went  back  swiftly,  pushed  the  portiere  aside,  and 
caught  Mahmoud  kneeling  on  a  cushion  at  her  feet  and 
devouring  her  with  his  eyes,  as  if  she  were  something 
good  to  eat!" 

"My  dear  Captain/'  I  said,  as  soon  as  I  could  control 
my  mirth,  "I  congratulate  you;  your  reappearance 
must  have  been  effective!" 

"It  was  that,"  he  answered,  quite  seriously.  "She 
turned  as  red  as  a  cabbage — a  red  cabbage,  you  under- 
stand— and  he  jumped  up,  glaring  at  me  furiously. 
'Playing  solitaire?'  I  said,  sweetly." 

"You  said  that?"  I  exclaimed,  incredulously.  That 
youth  was,  perchance,  not  so  silly  as  he  looked,  after 
all. 

"Yes,  I  did;  and  they  looked  vexed,  and  explained 
that  they  were  rehearsing  a  charade  that  was  to  be 
given  for  her  birthday-party — at  least,  she  did,  for  he 
was  looking  as  glum  as  an  owl.  You  don't  think  they 
were  hoaxing  me,  do  you?" 

"  Certainly  not,"  I  managed  to  say,  gravely,  with  a 
rapid  retraction  of  my  recent  hopeful  views  concerning 
that  interesting  young  warrior's  sharpness. 

"I  sat  down  between  them  and  sipped  my  tea,"  he 
continued,  "  and  they  began  to  talk — especially  she — 
about  all  sorts  of  people,  tearing  them  to  pieces,  as 
usual." 

"Whom  did  they  mention  particularly?"  I  could  not 
help  asking. 

"  That's  just  where  I  am  puzzled.  I  could  not  follow 
what  they  said,  because  you  know  how  she  nicknames 
everybody ;  but  they  were  deucedly  hard  on  '  the  Icicle/ 
whoever  that  may  be ;  they  said  she  was  the  very  devil, 
and  that  it  would  be  a  mercy  when  she  was  gotten  rid 

240 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

of.  '  Can't  you  put  in  a  word  against  her,  and  him  as 
well,  in  high  quarters?'  asked  madame,  and  Mahmoud 
told  her  that  he  had  already  done  it,  and  would  never 
rest  till  they  were  both  over  the  seas  and  far  away. 
They  bored  me  so  that  I  finally  took  myself  off,  and  in 
the  evening  I  heard  the  men  joking  at  the  club  about 
her  and  Mahmoud,  and  saying  that  the  husband's 
long  reign  was  at  last  over." 

"Look  here,  young  man,"  I  said,  suddenly  turning 
in  my  saddle  in  order  to  face  him  squarely.  "  I  want 
you  to  understand  something :  if  Countess  Vera  appears 
to  have  what  you  call  a  flirtation,  she  has  a  first-class 
motive  for  doing  so.  She  may  be  unscrupulous,  but 
she  is  not  legdre,  and  the  only  man  she  ever  loved  is 
her  present  husband.  Believe  me,  she  does  not  care  a 
fig  for  Mahmoud  Bey,  who  is  a  coxcomb  and  an  ass. 
She  is  using  him,  however,  for  some  deep  game  or  other. 
I  know  her  well,  and  although  she  does  not  like  me, 
that  is  no  reason  why  I  should  let  her  be  accused  of 
what  she  is  certainly  not  guilty  of." 

"Well,  I'm  damned!"  exclaimed  the  lad.  "I  had  no 
idea  you  cottoned  up  to  her!" 

"I  do  not  'cotton  up'  to  her — as  you  so  elegantly 
put  it,"  I  answered,  irascibly.  "Indeed,  I  dislike  her 
absolutely,  and  distrust  her  still  more,  but  it  always 
exasperates  me  to  hear  slander,  even  when  innocently 
repeated — so  there!"  and  I  absent-mindedly  flicked  a  fly 
from  Heliogabalus's  left  ear  with  my  open  hand,  bend- 
ing forward  to  do  so  at  an  angle  of  forty-five  degrees. 

"How  can  you  stoop  like  that  with  a  tight  corset?" 
inquired  the  carpet-knight,  guilelessly. 

Still  intent  on  the  unpleasant  news  I  had  just  heard, 
I  replied  almost  mechanically,  and  without  dreaming 
of  taking  offence  at  this  unimportant  boy's  singular 
remark. 

16  241 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"I  never  wear  them  on  horseback." 

"Whew!  your  habit  must  be  deucedly  well-made, 
then!" 

I  looked  at  him  with  astonishment.  "It  would  be 
more  polite  to  say  that  I  am,"  I  said,  gravely. 

"Haw-haw!  very  good!  You  are  quite  right,"  he 
chuckled,  delightedly.  "There's  nobody  like  you  for 
chaffing  a  fellow." 

Fortunately  we  had  now  reached  Kazr-el-Nil,  and 
my  stiis  bounding  forward,  I  bade  a  hasty  adieu  to  the 
brilliant  Captain  and  trotted  home  under  the  now  al- 
most perpendicular  rays  of  the  incandescent  sun,  which 
made  the  streets  blush  a  golden  red  and  the  atmos- 
phere dance  dizzily  before  my  tired  eyes. 

"  A  dangerous  combination,  that  of  Mahmoud  and 
Madame  S  .  .  .  a!  I  am  glad  that  I  made  him  sign 
that  paper,"  I  thought,  as  I  turned  into  the  broad  avenue 
leading  to  my  own  gates,  with  a  little  sigh  of  fatigue 
and  of  dawning  anxiety. 

That  night  I  went  to  a  dinner  given  by  Sir  James 

D  .  .  .  .  r,  chief  of  General  Sir  Frederick  S n's 

staff,  in  the  Esbekieh  Gardens.  The  table  had  been 
set  under  a  large,  clematis-grown  arbor,  and  the  un- 
usual coolness  of  the  night,  the  bright  and  pleasant 
people  present,  and  the  excellence  of  the  cuisine  made  a 
perfect  tout-ensemble  which  put  everybody  in  the  best 
of  humors  from  the  first.  I  sat  between  my  host  and 
that  gallant  and  unfortunate  soldier,  Colonel  B  .  .  .  r 
Pasha,  who,  some  years  before,  had  been  compelled  to 
leave  the  English  army  in  consequence  of  his  connec- 
tion with  a  cause  celebre,  which  to  this  day  is  remem- 
bered and  alluded  to  with  commiseration.  The  rare 
chivalry  which  he  displayed  throughout  that  cruel  trial 
towards  the  woman  who  so  relentlessly  pursued  him 
with  her  hatred,  the  extreme  severity  of  the  punish- 

242 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ment  meted  out  to  him,  his  courage  in  adversity,  his 
previous  fine  record,  and  his  heroic  bravery  while  fight- 
ing subsequently  beneath  the  Egyptian  banner,  had 
created  a  very  profound  and  wide-spread  sympathy  in 
his  behalf,  which  was  nowhere  more  pronounced  than 
in  England  and  in  the  British  army,  and  extended 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  in  the  land,  stopping, 
however,  just  short  of  the  Throne. 

The  sweet-faced,  patient,  loyal  wife,  who  had  stood 
by  him,  believed  in  him,  and  given  him  heart  to  en- 
dure the  tortures  he  went  through,  was  also  present, 
and  as  I  watched  her  wan  smile  and  soft,  wistful  eyes — 
always  seeking  his  with  deep  and  unaltered  tenderness 
and  admiration — across  the  lilies  and  gardenias  of  the 
table  corbeilles,  I  came  nigh  to  reconsidering  my  ver- 
dict upon  a  sex  that  sometimes  can  produce  so  flawless 
a  being. 

"  When  is  your  husband  coming  back?"  asked  B  .  .  .  r 
Pasha.  "I  would  like  to  thank  him  for  what  he  has 
attempted  to  do  for  me.  I  will  never  forget  his  kind- 
ness." 

He  spoke  in  a  low,  subdued,  pathetic  voice,  which 
came  oddly  from  the  tall,  martial-looking,  broad-shoul- 
dered man,  and  I  was  about  to  make  some  remark 
turning  the  conversation — a  painful  one  for  him,  I 
knew — into  other  channels,  when  he  continued,  under 
cover  of  the  increasing  buzz  of  voices  rising  around 
Sir  James's  hospitable  board : 

"  Tell  him,  however,  that  he  must  not  take  any  further 
trouble  about  the  matter.  The  Queen  will  never  con- 
sent, and  I  have  become  reconciled  to — to  past  sorrows 
— and  disappointments.  For  my  wife  and  children  I 
would  have  been  glad  if  justice  could  have  been  done 
me;  but,  after  all,  the  worst  is  over,  and  I  do  not 
complain." 

243 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  did  not  answer,  save  by  a  nod  of  acquiescence,  for 
the  moment  was  scarcely  well  chosen  for  such  a  sub- 
ject, or  to  let  one's  self  be  carried  away  by  feelings  too 
strong  and  sincere,  too  grave  and  poignant,  to  find  place 
amid  a  gathering  of  thorough-paced  worldings  such 
as  surrounded  us. 

Fred,  at  a  suggestion  from  Lord  Wolseley — one  of 
the  fairest-minded  of  men,  and  who  has  most  untruth- 
fully been  described  as  harsh  and  selfish — had  drafted 
for  the  Khedive,  and  induced  him  to  write,  a  private 
letter  to  the  Queen,  asking  as  a  particular  favor  the 
rehabilitation  of  Colonel  B  .  .  .  r  Pasha  and  his  rein- 
statement in  the  British  army  in  consideration  of  his 
great  services  to  Egypt,  and  of  the  wellnigh  unpar- 
alleled bravery  which  he  had  displayed  at  Tokar  and 
other  battles  against  the  Dervishes  on  the  Red  Sea 
coast. 

A  brother-at-arms  of  B  .  .  .  r  had,  only  a  few  days 
before,  enthusiastically  described  to  me  his  gallantry 
amid  the  din  and  turmoil  of  several  of  those  terrible 
desert  encounters,  where  the  Egyptian  troops  contended 
with  choking  sands  and  parching  thirst,  as  well  as  a 
fierce  and  savage  enemy,  and  drew  a  noble  picture,  in- 
deed, of  the  tall  officer,  bare-headed  and  bare-chested, 
dashing  on  his  charger  at  the  head  of  his  men,  and 
with  voice  and  example  lifting  them  by  a  splendid  ef- 
fort to  victory. 

"  They'll  follow  him  anywhere/'  said  he.  "  He  is  a 
born  leader  of  men  and  a  d d  fine  fellow!" 

I  thought  sadly  of  all  this  while  he  spoke  to  me,  and 
also  of  the  ill-luck  which  steadily  pursued  this  un- 
fortunate man,  for  three  months  had  already  elapsed 
since  the  despatch  of  the  letter  and  it  still  remained 
unanswered.  Alas!  it  was  destined  never  to  receive 
an  acknowledgment,  and  to  be  the  only  instance  of  a 

244 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

letter  written  by  Tewfik  to  the  Queen  remaining  without 
a  response. 

For  the  rest  of  the  dinner  B  .  .  .  r  Pasha  and  myself 
did  not  seem  to  have  much  to  say  to  each  other,  and  we 
both  turned  to  our  respective  neighbors  in  order  to  re- 
gain an  equanimity  that  had  already  failed  us.  A 
dinner-party  is  always  an  odd  and  difficult  game,  even 
to  those  who  have  played  it  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
it  requires  special  gifts  to  face  its  complexities  with  an 
unflagging  and  assured  vivacity,  whatever  one's  state 
of  mind  may  be;  but  nevertheless,  by  the  time  dessert 
made  its  appearance  I  felt  happier  than  I  had  done  all 
day,  my  ideas  grew  brighter,  and  I  managed  to  join 
several  times  in  the  general  gay  and  light-hearted 
chatter  of  my  fellow-guests. 

The  Esbekieh  Gardens  looked  extremely  poetical, 
and  the  atmosphere  of  the  lovely  night  was  pregnant 
with  a  strange  tenderness  and  softness  purely  Oriental. 
The  silver  disc  of  the  moon  was  extraordinarily  bright, 
and  on  the  faint  breeze,  ruffling  only  the  smallest  leaves 
of  the  trees,  hovered  the  penetrating  scent  of  tropical 
blossoms,  while  glow-lamps  outlined  the  winding  paths 
radiating  from  the  central  music  pavilion,  around 
which  the  spearlike  rays  of  a  score  of  crimson  lights 
touched  the  dark  foliage  of  some  camellias  and  mag- 
nolias artistically  grouped  beneath  them,  and  the 
sound  of  an  Arab  orchestra  came  to  our  ears,  like  the 
living  spirit  of  the  place,  in  ceaseless,  weird  pulsations, 
clear  and  clean-cut  on  the  surface  of  the  night,  although 
softened  and  mellowed  by  distance. 

Again  my  thoughts  began  to  wander,  for  it  seemed 
to  me,  to  use  maritime  parlance,  that  there  were  break- 
ers ahead,  and  that  our  life  in  Egypt,  already  passably 
difficult  as  it  was,  would  now  be  made  almost  impossi- 
ble by  all  that  had  lately  occurred.  The  Mahmoud  in- 

245 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

cident,  complicated  by  Madame  S  .  .  .  a's  animosity, 
threatened  to  bring  on  absolute  warfare,  although  of  a 
kind  which  would  not  be  fairly  fought  on  her  side,  and 
could  not  be  openly  met  on  mine.  I  felt  myself  un- 
qualified for  a  game  of  this  sort,  for  my  standard  of 
"fair-play"  was  uncompromisingly  high,  and  I  could 
not  help  dreading  a  little  what  was  bound  to  follow. 
Countess  Vera  was  overbearing,  sarcastic,  and  unkind, 
and  her  dislike  to  me  had  lately  made  such  giant 
strides — for  reasons  unknown — that  I  could  not  but 
see  a  cloud  looming  large  and  disquieting  upon  my 
horizon,  her  extreme  cleverness  and  keen  intellect  mak- 
ing her  a  dangerous  adversary  to  encounter,  whether 
openly  or  otherwise.  That  she  was  using  Mahmoud  as 
a  mere  tool  I  was  absolutely  certain,  for,  with  all  her 
faults,  she  was  no  flirt,  and  her  devotion  to  her  hus- 
band was  too  well  known  a  fact  to  be  doubted  for  an 
instant;  so  once  again  it  behooved  me  to  keep  my 
eyes  pretty  wide  open. 

"Are  you  going  to  the  viceregal  concert  to-morrow?" 
asked  young  Lord  H  .  .  .  s,  a  stalwart  boy  of  about 
twenty-five,  with  fine,  hazel  eyes,  light -brown  hair 
growing  low  on  the  forehead,  and  a  general  flavor  of 
Bond  Street  and  the  Guards'  Club  about  his  ultra-fash- 
ionable attire.  This  boy  had  also  a  well-modulated 
voice,  a  somewhat  listless  manner,  and  a  great  deal 
of  painfully  and  laboriously  acquired  cynicism,  with 
which  he  liked  to  crush  his  every  youthful  feeling  and 
impulse  in  a  most  amusing  manner,  for  nature  over- 
lapped art  at  every  turn,  greatly  to  his  own  confusion 
and  his  hearer's  delight.  "  Don't  you  think,"  he  con- 
tinued, as  we  rose  from  the  table  and  filed  into  a  second 
arbor,  where  coffee  and  liqueurs  were  awaiting  us, "  it  is 
a  beastly  shame  to  go  in  for  social  gatherings  when 
the  thermometer  plainly  indicates  that  siestas  and 

246 


dolce-far-nientes  are  the  only  recommendable  forms  of 
pleasure?"  And  before  I  had  time  to  answer  he  quickly 
added,  in  an  entirely  different  tone  and  with  a  joyful 
glance  of  anticipation,  "  I  am  dying  to  see  the  summer 
palace  illuminated,  and  I  do  hope  that  we  shall  dance 
a  lot  after  the  concert!"  I  laughed,  and  he  blushed  a 
.vivid  crimson,  worthy  of  his  tender  age. 

"Yes,  I  am  going,  of  course,"  I  replied.  "Fred  will 
be  back  just  in  time,  I  dare  say,  and  I  assure  you  that 
you  will  enjoy  the  evening  much  better  than  you  im- 
agine. It  will,  I  trust,  be  as  cool  as  to-night,  and  those 
gardens,  when  lighted  a  giorno,  are  a  sight  not  to  be 
forgotten;  moreover,  the  music  is  always  good,  and 
few  as  are  the  women  who  still  linger  in  Cairo,  they 
happen  to  be  all  rather  pretty  and  bright  specimens  of 
the  Eternel  feminin!" 

We  had  formed  sympathetic  groups  by  this  time, 
and  Lord  H  .  .  .  s  and  I  had  been  joined  by  Major 
A  ....  h,  a  Victoria  Cross  man  of  extreme  solemnity, 
who  had  a  knack  of  suddenly  sinking  in  melancholy 
reveries,  from  which  he  emerged  with  a  piteous  look  of 
embarrassment  and  apology.  This  did  not,  however, 
prevent  him  from  being  a  very  shrewd  and  keen  observer 
when  he  cared  to  take  the  trouble.  A  little  smile  of  cool 
amusement  now  hovered  on  the  Major's  lips  and  his 
inscrutable  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  broad  allee  meander- 
ing between  hedges  of  rhododendrons  past  the  arched 
entrance  of  our  temporary  open-air  salon,  as  if  he 
were  completely  oblivious  of  the  people  round  him, 
although  murmured  scraps  of  conversation,  amused 
exclamations,  and  low  laughter  formed  a  sort  of  con- 
tinuous subdued  accompaniment  to  our  own  quiet  lit- 
tle talk. 

"What  are  you  looking  at?"  asked  Lord  H  .  .  .  s 
touching  the  Major's  sleeve  to  attract  his  wandering 

247 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

attention.     The  latter  started,  and  replied  in  what  I 
called  his  absent-minded  voice: 

"Oh,  I  was  watching  that  awful  Russian  woman, 
Madame  S . . .  a,  who  for  the  past  ten  minutes  has  been 
pacing  up  and  down  with  her  escort  in  front  of  this 
shady  retreat,  as  if  she  were  a  vedette  on  scouting  duty. " 

I  turned  quickly  round,  and  saw  Madame  S  .  .  .  a 
in  a  black  lace  gown  and  a  large,  black  lace  hat  covered 
with  red  roses,  walking  towards  our  arbor,  engaged  in 
earnest  conversation  with  Mahmoud,  and  followed  by 
her  husband  and  by  a  tall  man  with  a  long  beard  and 
feverish  eyes — an  English  free-lance  journalist  of  sadly 

evil  repute,  by  name  H  .  .  .  .  M e — who  carried 

the  Countess's  huge  feather  fan. 

"  I  cannot  understand,"  I  said,  settling  myself  again 
in  my  chair,  "  how  she  can  endure  the  presence  of  that 
awful  newspaper  man.  He  is  execrably  bred,  minus 
the  incumbrance  of  a  mind,  and  given  to  a  kind  of 
immoral  literature  exempt  of  the  redeeming  qualities 
of  wit  and  purpose  —  a  sort  of  literary  scavenger,  as 
one  might  say!  And  as  to  his  wife,  no  wonder  Ma- 
dame S . .  .  a  has  nicknamed  her  '  Le  Mouton  qui  rdve.' 
She  is  dangerously  stupid!" 

Lord  H  .  .  .  s  gave  vent  to  a  prolonged,  boyish  guffaw, 
which  he  checked  as  suddenly  as  it  came,  while  the 
Major  relapsed  into  one  of  his  gloomiest  reveries,  strok- 
ing his  small  mustache,  and  looking  so  poetically 
wretched  that  he  might  have  posed  for  a  statue  of  De- 
feat or  Despair. 

A  fierce  resentment  swept  over  me,  for  if  Madame 
S  .  .  .  a  was  going  to  have  such  allies  as  these,  the 
war  would  become  a  mere  guerre  d 'ambuscade ,  fought 
on  one  side  by  brigands.  I  turned  once  more  and 
watched  my  incomprehensible  enemy  as  she  saun- 
tered past,  earnestly  whispering  with  Mahmoud  Bey, 

248 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  finally  disappeared  round  the  bend  of  the  rhodo- 
dendron thicket.  From  the  Sharia-Kamel-Pasha  now 
came  the  trampling  of  many  feet — an  Arab  bridal  pro- 
cession on  its  way  to  the  Mooskie,  preceded  by  tara- 
bouckas  and  plaintive  little  drums  of  singularly  muf- 
fled sonority. 

Lord  H  .  .  .  s  jumped  up,  forgetting  for  the  millionth 
time  that  he  was  a  cynical,  blase,  prematurely  old  man 
of  the  world,  and  with  a  hasty  apology  ran  out  of  the 
arbor  towards  the  garden-gates,  crying,  gleefully: 

"I  must  catch  a  glimpse  of  those  beggars;  they  are 
so  exquisitely  picturesque!" 

A  faint  smell  of  incense  and  of  orange-flowers  floated 
towards  us,  and  Major  A  ....  h  sniffed  the  air  with  a 
play  of  features  which  made  him  look  as  though  he 
was  on  the  verge  of  tears.  I  rose,  and,  picking  up  my 
fan  and  light  wrap,  bade  Sir  James  adieu,  declining  to 
delay  my  departure  despite  his  polite  entreaties,  for 
I  longed  to  be  alone,  and  accepting  the  silently  gal- 
lant Major's  arm,  I  walked  to  where  my  victoria  stood 
waiting  opposite  the  new  hotel  and  drove  off. 

Suddenly,  as  the  horses  turned  into  the  quiet  streets 
of  the  Ismailia  quarter,  an  irresistible  desire  to  stand 
face  to  face  with  Madame  S  .  .  .  a,  and  to  see  for  myself 
whether  my  suspicions  were  right,  overcame  me ;  and  I 
bade  my  coachman  drive  to  M a  Chaumiere.  Outward- 
ly, the  mistress  of  this  luxurious  "  cottage  "  and  myself 
were  on  perfectly  friendly  terms,  and  as  Cairene  customs 
made  a  call  at  ten  o'clock  at  night  quite  allowable,  I 
had  no  reason  to  delay  my  visit  and  my  investigation. 

In  spite  of  a  pronounced  dislike  for  melodramatic 
situations,  my  great  penchant  for  taking  the  bull  by 
the  horns  ruled  in  the  present  instance,  so  I  was  decid- 
edly pleased  to  find  that  Countess  Vera  had  just  come 
home  and  was  sitting  in  the  garden  with  some  friends, 

249 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  in  a  moment  more  I  stood  on  the  turf-carpeted  ter- 
race at  the  back  of  the  house,  where  a  long  arcade,  cov- 
ered with  climbing  banskia  and  purple  bougainvillier 
vines,  served  as  a  summer  salon.  The  clear,  bright 
light  of  the  moon  shone  through  the  flower  -  laden 
branches  upon  the  four  people  whom  I  had  seen  stroll- 
ing half  an  hour  earlier  in  the  public  gardens,  and 
upon  Nubar  Pasha,  who  was  smoking  a  cigarette  out 
of  one  of  his  customary  long-stemmed  amber  holders, 
which  he  invariably  stuffed  with  cotton,  "to  prevent 
the  evil  effects  of  nicotine,"  as  he  was  fond  of  declaring. 

We  all  seemed  ready  grouped  for  a  scene  from  the 
boards  of  the  Gymnase,  and  I  almost  wondered  why 
slow  and  appropriate  music  did  not  make  itself  discreetly 
heard  behind  the  neighboring  shrubs.  "How  absurd 
this  all  is!"  I  thought,  with  a  wraith  of  my  former  keen 
enjoyment  of  ridiculous  incidents,  while  shaking  hands, 
well  aware  that  four  out  of  the  five  present  hated  me 
as  sincerely  as  if  I  had  been  closely  related  to  them. 
They  nevertheless  greeted  me  with  the  most  effusive 
and  distinguished  consideration! 

"This  is  indeed  a  charming  surprise!"  exclaimed 
my  hostess,  rising  and  coming  to  meet  me  with  out- 
stretched hands  and  a  frank,  kindly  smile.  "  We  were 
talking  about  you  only  a  little  while  ago." 

"I  hope  you  were  dealing  leniently  with  me,"  I  re- 
joined, with  a  short  laugh.  "When  witty  people  dis- 
cuss their  friends  the  latter  are  rather  likely  to  be  served 
up  a  la  sauce  piquante." 

"That  makes  me  very  unwilling  to  be  ever  remem- 
bered by  you  in  my  absence,"  laughed  the  Count,  of- 
fering me  a  cigarette,  together  with  a  little  alcohol  flame 
darting  from  a  mazarine-blue-enamelled  snake -head, 
like  a  poisonous  tongue. 

"Thanks  for  the  implied  compliment,"  I  replied, 

250 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

laughing;  "but  my  present  state  of  mind  is  rather  of 
an  extinguished  kind.  In  such  hot  weather  one's 
field  of  witticism  surpasses  in  poverty  even  the  bare- 
ness of  Arabia  Petraea." 

Nubar  gave  vent  to  one  of  his  fat,  gurgling  chuckles, 
and  muttered,  beneath  his  gray  mustache:  "Dear, 
dear,  this  is  when  Greek  meets  Greek,  and  diamond 
cuts  diamond!"  and  leaning  luxuriously  back  in  the 
depths  of  his  long  cane-chair — cushioned,  according  to 
the  tenets  of  Ma  Chaumiere,  with  sixteenth  -  century 
cloth  of  silver — he  prepared  to  enjoy  himself  hugely,  as 
I  could  plainly  discern  by  the  mischievous  twinkle  of 
his  eye. 

"My  dear,"  said  Madame  S  .  .  .  a,  with  an  assump- 
tion of  affectionate  familiarity  so  palpably  overdrawn 
that  I  silently  wondered  how  so  clever  a  woman  could 
commit  such  an  error,  "I  am  going  to  bring  a  com- 
patriot of  ours  to  see  you — I  always  look  upon  you  as 
entirely  Russian,  you  know.  I  do  not  think  you  ever 
met  him,  but  he  will  charm  you,  I  feel  certain,  for  he  is 
exceedingly  horsy  and  doggy,  and,  withal,  wonderful- 
ly chic  and  dashing ;  in  short,  Monsieur  de  L ff , 

late  of  the  Muscovite  Embassy  at  Constantinople.  He 
is  arriving  here  to-morrow  on  his  way  to  the  Gold  Coast, 
where  he  has  been  appointed  as  Consul  -  General,  I 
think,  or  something  of  the  sort." 

"  Andre"  Nikolaitch  L ff?"  I  asked,  surprised. 

"I  thought  that  he  had  been  invited  to  leave  the  ser- 
vice in  so  pressing  a  way  as  to  preclude  his  showing 
any  possible  reluctance  to  do  so?" 

"You  are  mistaken.  I  have  not  heard  anything 
about  this;  and  you  must  remember  that  he  comes 
from  a  remarkably  good  family." 

"Y-e-es,  he  has  come  a  long  way  from  it,"  I  inter- 
rupted, somewhat  impatiently.  "I  had  the  question- 

251 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

able  honor  to  meet  him  at  an  English  country  house 
two  or  three  years  ago.  He  struck  up  a  great  friend- 
ship there  with  a  wealthy  but  not  very  intelligent  fel- 
low-guest, the  owner  of  a  good  deal  of  loose  cash,  which 
he  attempted  so  very  shamelessly  to  divert  into  his 
own  pocket  that  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Lord 

S y,  our  mutual  host — an  observing  man — and 

was  quietly  but  swiftly  turned  adrift  to  seek  another 
deal  of  the  cards.  " 

Madame  S  .  .  .  a  was  about  to  protest,  the  light  of 
battle  kindling  in  her  small,  almond-shaped,  Tartar 
eyes,  when  Nubar  interposed. 

"I  am  afraid,"  he  said,  in  his  slow,  incisive  way, 
"that  your  well-known  kindness  and  your  indulgent 
and  charitable  interpretation  of  character,  Madame 
S  .  .  .  a,  blinds  you  to  the  true  nature  of  your  protege! 
I  happen  to  know  him  well — very  well — myself,  and  I 
can  assure  you  that  his  past  is  of  the  shadiest,  and 
his  future  singularly  speculative;  moreover,  he  is  af- 
filiated with  the  Third  Section  in  Petersburg,  and  more 
or  less  with  the  Rue  de  Jerusalem  in  Paris,  Bow  Street 
in  London,  and  Mulberry  Street  in  New  York — all  this, 
of  course,  very  much  sub-rosa,  and  in  consideration  of 
hard-cash  returns.  He  is  a  person  to  be  studiously 
avoided." 

"Fie I  a  diplomat!  Surely  that  is  impossible!"  cried 
Madame  S  .  .  .  a,  with  pious  indignation.  "  What  can 
my  cousin  Boris  have  been  about,  to  give  him  letters 
of  introduction  to  me  and  to  speak  so  highly  of  him?" 

"  Your  cousin  Boris  was  certainly  ill-advised,  and  as 

to  L ff  being  a  diplomat,  that  is  quite  untrue, 

for  he  did  leave  the  service  some  years  ago  under  a 
very  dark  cloud  indeed,  and  since  then  he  has  essayed 
every  species  of  successful  and  unsuccessful  adventure, 
has  gathered  a  considerable  share  of  plunder,  and  has 

252 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

had  some  very  narrow  escapes  from  being  sent  to  end 
his  days  in  Siberia.  In  fact,  it  is  the  difficulty  which 
he  experienced  in  avoiding  the  grasp  of  the  law  that 
made  him  ultimately  associate  himself  with  the  police. 
I  am  surprised  that  you,  who  know  everything  and 
everybody,  should  not  have  remembered  that!" 

When  Nubar  ceased  speaking  I  glanced  at  Madame 
S . . .  a,  who  managed  to  infuse  into  her  attitude  as  much 
genuine  astonishment  as  ever  was  felt  by  a  poor,  con- 
fiding, deluded  being  when  making  a  quite  unexpected 
and  unpleasant  discovery.  Her  jewelled  hands  hung 
by  her  side ;  her  whole  face  was  expressive  of  tumultu- 
ous feelings,  almost  amounting  to  terror.  And  terrified 
she  possibly  was,  for  in  her  anxiety  to  go  too  fast  in  her 
plan  of  revenge  upon  me — for  what  crime  I  will  prob- 
ably never  know — she  had  unmasked  her  batteries  most 
imprudently,  and  that  before  a  man  of  Nubar's  keenness 
and  shrewdness,  who,  moreover,  was  my  personal  and 
devoted  friend. 

I  leaned  forward  in  my  seat,  and  for  a  moment  or 
two  smoked  in  silence,  with  my  eyes  full  upon  her.  I 
knew  now  what  I  had  come  to  find  out.  She  had 

fancied  that  with  L fi's  help  she  could  discover 

exactly  what  were  the  real  business  relations  of  Fred 
with  the  Khedive  and  England,  and  'establish  a  plan  of 
campaign  which  would  dislodge  us  from  Egypt.  That 
there  was  yet  more  than  that  simmering  in  her  active 
brain  I  felt  sure  of,  and  I  was  confirmed  in  this  belief 
by  the  rapid  glance  of  warning  which  she  exchanged 
with  Mahmoud  and  her  new  ally,  the  English  news- 
paper man,  who,  rather  white -faced  and  nervous, 
showed  discouragement  in  every  line  of  their  persons. 

Obviously  the  conspirators  could  do  nothing  for  some 
time  now  without  laying  themselves  open  to  grave 
suspicion,  and  I  inwardly  blessed  my  visit,  which  had, 

253 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

by  pure  luck,  mixed  their  cards  in  so  timely  a  fashion. 
Indeed,  so  far  as  the  immediate  present  was  concerned, 
I  felt  that  I  need  give  very  little  further  thought  to  their 
unsavory  machinations.  After  listening  for  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  or  so  to  the  Countess  Vera's  lamenta- 
tions and  pathetic  denunciations  of  a  world  where  her 
good -nature  and  simple-mindedness  were  constantly 
leading  her  into  trouble,  I  rose,  took  my  leave,  and 
shook  the  dust  of  my  slippers  upon  four  of  the  neatest 
scoundrels  which  it  has  ever  been  my  evil  fortune  to 
meet,  taking  with  me,  however,  Nubar,  who  on  the 
way  home  gave  me  some  excellent  advice  and  a  few 
very  useful  hints  about  sundry  things. 

Fred  came  back  on  the  morrow  in  good  time  to  ac- 
company me  to  the  last  Court  concert  of  the  season, 
but  not  early  enough  for  me  to  have  a  chance  of  telling 
him  about  all  that  had  occurred  during  his  short  ab- 
sence, and,  save  for  a  few  words  about  the  Khedive's 
visit,  I  confined  myself  to  mere  generalities.  Of  my 
encounter  with  Mahmoud  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to 
speak  not  at  all,  for  why  should  I  make  him  retrospec- 
tively anxious?  I  had  warned  him  two  or  three  times 
about  the  treacherous  aide-de-camp,  and  if  his  per- 
sistent optimism  prevented  him  from  according  to  what 
I  said  the  importance  and  weight  it  deserved,  I  was  not 
inclined  to  harp  any  more  on  that  chord.  In  the  light 
of  subsequent  events  I  saw  later  that  it  would  have  been 
better  for  me  to  have  done  so,  but  at  the  time  of  his  re- 
turn I  thought  that  I  had  good  reason  to  look  upon 
Mahmoud  thenceforth  as  a  negligible  quantity,  and  so 
I  unfortunately  kept  silent. 

As  the  last  touches  were  being  put  to  my  pearl-sown 
dress  of  white  lace,  looped  up  with  white  lilac  and  dia- 
mond fleur-de-lys,  he  entered  my  dressing-room,  as 
was  his  wont  on  such  occasions,  and,  seating  himself 

254 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

on  an  ottoman,  watched  the  women  fastening  jewels 
all  over  me — for  this  was  a  gala  night,  when  a  grande 
toilette  was  a  matter  of  sheer  etiquette. 

"  Oh  I  thou  art  fairer  than  the  evening  air 
Clad  in  the  beauty  of  a  thousand  stars!" 

he  murmured,  smiling,  and,  picking  up  from  the  carpet, 
where  it  had  fallen,  a  small  branch  of  white  lilac,  he 
slipped  it  in  his  coat  above  the  brochette  of  decorations 
hanging  from  the  button  -  hole.  "  L'ordre  du  Mari 
Amoureux,"  he  continued,  half  joking  and  half  serious. 
"Dear  me,  Pussy,  are  you  intent  upon  fresh  con- 
quests? You  are  gotten  up  regardless  of  expense!  A 
perfect  Queen  of  Sheba!" 

"Does  that  mean  that  your  wisdom  is  no  greater 
than  King  Solomon's?"  I  replied,  taking  my  fan  and 
bouquet  from  a  table  and  preparing  to  leave  the  room. 
"To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  am  for  once  anxious  to  look 
my  best,  hence  the  blinding  display  of  diamonds  you 
observe.  This  may  prove  to  be  a  field-night." 

The  drive  to  the  palace  was  a  delightful  one,  for  the 
sky  was  radiant,  and  the  white  lustre  of  the  full  moon 
shone  over  the  land,  making  everything  as  light  as  day, 
and  transforming  the  viceregal  abode,  with  its  gorgeous 
gardens,  its  silvery  fountains,  its  marble  loggias,  and 
its  lacelike  arcades,  into  something  supernaturally 
lovely. 

The  Khedive's  entertainments  with  such  a  back- 
ground were  really  worth  attending,  and  even  to  the 
most  blas6  eyes  presented  features  of  quite  special  in- 
terest ;  so,  in  spite  of  the  comparative  emptiness  of  Cairo 
at  this  time  of  year,  the  avenue  was  crowded  with  car- 
riages as  we  drove  up,  and  the  buzz  of  many  voices 
sounding  beneath  the  lofty,  gilded  ceilings  of  the  vast 
reception-rooms  greeted  us  on  our  entrance, 

255 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Tewfik  was  in  one  of  his  happiest  moods,  and  re- 
ceived his  guests  with  an  urbanity  and  a  courtliness 
which  he  knew  very  well  how  to  assume,  and  which 
became  him  excellently.  Shortly  after  ten  o'clock  he 
led  the  way,  with  Lady  B . . . .  g,  wife  of  the  British 
Envoy,  on  his  arm,  to  the  concert-room,  where  the  best 
singers  of  the  opera  troupe  and  several  special  lumi- 
naries of  the  musical  world  on  their  way  back  from  a 
tour  in  India  enchanted  us  with  sweet  melody. 

Every  one  who  had  been  invited  had  come,  and  the 
long  galleries,  lined  with  tall  Venetian  mirrors  and 
decorated  with  masses  of  verdure  and  white  and  pink 
roses  relieved  here  and  there  by  feathery  clumps  of 
golden  mimosa,  were  ideally  occupied,  peopled  enough 
but  not  crowded,  and  kept  deliciously  cool  by  enormous 
blocks  of  ice  emerging  from  cup-shaped  receptacles  of 
green-bronze  smothered  in  bronze-green  ferns,  through 
the  delicate  fronds  of  which  the  frozen  glitter  of  these 
great  crystalline  masses  shone  dazzlingly,  giving  one 
an  invaluable  impression  of  chilliness. 

In  the  second  row  of  chairs  sat  Madame  S  .  .  .  a, 
clad  in  several  shades  of  red  and  generously  decolletee, 
with  an  interminable  flight  of  jewelled  moths  disport- 
ing themselves  upon  her  statuesque  figure,  her  long, 
silken  train,  and  her  dark  hair,  where  they  sparkled 
magnificently.  She  was  wreathed  in  smiles,  and  gen- 
tly beat  time  with  another  of  her  gigantic  fans — made 
this  time  of  cardinal  feathers — against  her  admirably 
gloved  hands,  a  picture  of  absolute  and  clear-conscienced 
enjoyment. 

She  nodded  to  me  in  the  friendliest  manner  possible, 
and  several  times  during  the  concert  looked  my  way, 
when  some  especially  fine  harmony  was  in  progress, 
as  if  to  associate  me  affectionately  with  her  enthusiastic 
appreciation  thereof.  On  her  right  hand  was  a  small 

256 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

and  grizzled  Ambassador,  with  deep-set,  quizzical  eyes 
and  a  nut-cracker  profile,  and  on  her  left  a  melancholy- 
looking  young  man — a  celebrated  African  traveller  by 
trade — who  perpetually  inclined  his  head  on  one  side 
like  a  thoughtful  bird. 

A  prolonged  and  sonorous  rustling  at  length  an- 
nounced that  the  performance  was  over,  and  we  moved 
back  to  the  other  apartments.  From  the  band  in  the 
gallery  came  the  intoxicating  lilt  of  excellently  exe- 
cuted dance-music,  and  soon,  in  spite  of  the  heat,  the 
sibilant  rustle  of  silken  skirts  and  the  slight  friction 
of  delicate  slippers  on  the  highly  polished  floors  made 
itself  heard. 

I  had  decided  not  to  dance,  but  Prince  Hussein,  the 
Khedive's  brother,  rushed  up  to  me  and  asked  me 
for  a  waltz,  which  I  granted  him  at  once,  for  he  was 
one  of  the  best  dancers  I  ever  met.  Tall,  slight,  wiry, 
and  very  good-looking,  Prince  Hussein  was  certainly 
the  most  European  -  looking  Oriental  it  is  possible  to 
imagine,  and  his  blue  eyes  and  long,  tawny  mustache, 
coupled  with  notable  taste  in  dress,  and  charm  of 
manner,  made  him  resemble  an  Austrian  or  Russian 
grand  seigneur  far  more  than  a  Turko-Egyptian  Prince. 
There  was  a  boyish  spring  and  grace  about  his  step 
quite  irresistible,  and  we  spun  round  with  a  delicious 
unanimity  of  motion  which  only  such  a  partner  can 
procure  one.  We  danced  in  a  wide  circle,  Prince  Hus- 
sein steering  as  no  one  else  could  steer,  and  did  not 
stop  until  the  last  strains  of  that  old-fashioned  but 
wonderfully  rhythmed  waltz,  Les  Dragons  de  la  Reine, 
died  away  on  the  heavily  scented  air. 

"Come  out  into  the  gardens,"  he  said,  a  little  breath- 
lessly, as  we  passed  out  of  the  human  hedge  standing 
before  the  doors  to  watch  the  dancers,  and  into  the 
gardens  we  went,  first  stopping  for  a  moment  in  the 
'7  257 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  Khedive,  who,  as  Prince  Hussein  had  surmised, 
was  lying  in  wait  for  us. 

"  Souffler  n'est  pas  jouer !"  murmured  that  incor- 
rigible tease,  bowing  low,  first  to  me,  then  to  his  august 
brother.  "  I  relinquish  my  fair  partner  to  Your  Royal 
Highness.  May  peace  be  with  you  both,"  and,  trans- 
ferring my  hand  from  his  own  to  the  Khedive's  arm, 
this  unfortunate  but  merry  Prince  left  us. 

I  felt  as  if  I  had  eaten  my  white  bread  first,  and  now 
resigned  myself  with  an  eager  and  even  delighted 
cmile — women  were  deceivers  ever — to  accept  a  course 
of  heavy  cake,  and  was  a  little  surprised  when  Tewfik, 
discarding  for  once  his  slow  and  hesitating  manner  of 
speech,  said,  gayly :  "  I  have  been  waiting  long  for  the 
pleasure  and  honor  of  a  few  minutes  with  you,  and 
when  we  have  sat  out  a  quadrille  or  two — alas !  I  do  not, 
like  my  little  brother,  indulge  in  terpsichorean  delights 
— we  will,  if  you  wish  it,  go  and  spend  a  few  minutes 
with  somebody  who  is  even  now  looking  at  us  from  up 
yonder,"  and  he  vaguely  indicated  a  sort  of  wide  balcony 
overhanging  the  gallery  and  quite  inclosed  in  exquis- 
itely fine  moucharabieh  work. 

I  knew  what  he  meant,  and  measured  the  desire  he 
had  to  show  me  favor  by  this  veiled  allusion  to  his 
Consort,  which  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  Oriental 
etiquette,  and  conferred  upon  me  the  unprecedented 
distinction  of  being  treated  as  £tant  de  la  famille.  I 
bowed  my  head  in  silent  and  grateful  acquiescence,  and 
we  walked  the  whole  length  of  the  enfilade  of  salons, 
chatting  about  indifferent  topics,  until  we  reached  the 
last,  a  charming  room  hung  and  upholstered  with  Louis 
XVI.  brocade  of  dead-turquoise  and  silver  in  a  delicate 
pattern  of  hedge-roses  and  true-lovers'  knots,  where  we 
sat  down  side  by  side  en  freres ! 

There  was  nobody  there  besides  ourselves,  but 

260 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

through  the  broad,  open  doors  we  could  see  the  people 
moving  about  in  a  maze  of  brilliant  coloring  very 
pleasing  to  the  eye.  Tewfik  had  possessed  himself 
of  my  fan  and  was  softly  furling  and  unfurling  it,  his 
dark  eyes  bent  on  the  tracery  of  the  lace  with  which 
it  was  covered,  as  if  his  life  depended  upon  count- 
ing the  very  meshes  of  the  filmy  fabric.  At  last  he 
spoke. 

"There  is  something  I  want  to  tell  you,"  he  said, 
with  an  unusual  firmness  and  resonance  of  voice. 
"  You  have  been  very  good  and  very  loyal  to  me,  very 
patient  and  helpful.  Is  there  anything  that  I  can  do  to 
show  you  my  gratitude?  Please  do  not  think  I  am  go- 
ing to  blunder,  too,  and  offer  you  a  jewel  or  a  deco- 
ration in  souvenir  of  what  you  have  done — I,  at  least, 
know  you  too  well  for  that.  But  is  there  not  something 
else  which  would  give  you  even  a  moment's  pleasure?" 

I  was  touched.  Never  had  I  thought  that  the  Khe- 
dive was  capable  of  showing  such  considerate  kindness, 
or  of  displaying  such  fine  comprehension.  Had  I  done 
him  an  injustice,  after  all?" 

"  Monseigneur,"  I  replied,  in  a  slightly  lowered  voice, 
"I  am  deeply  grateful  for  this  generous  speech,  and 
there  is  nothing  that  can  be  more  pleasing  and  wel- 
come to  me  than  to  have  been  privileged  to  hear  it. 
Nous  sommes  quittes,  Monseigneur." 

"We  can  never  be  that,"  he  murmured.  "Your  ac- 
count against  me  is  too  heavy  to  be  ever  balanced  by 
mere  words.  Tell  me,  is  there  nothing  I  can  do  for  the 
benefit  of  others,  and  that  you  can  suggest?  Surely 
that  is  what  would  please  you  best.  I  know  you  well, 
you  see." 

Truly,  Tewfik  was  revealing  himself  in  an  entirely 
new  light,  and  a  swift  wave  of  something  very  like  re- 
morse for  my  perchance  too  harsh  judgment  of  him 

261 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

swept  over  me.  Well  counselled,  he  might  perchance 
have  become  a  totally  different  man,  and  so  to  my  re- 
morse was  added  the  pang  of  leaving  him  unwarned 
in  the  hands  of  Mahmoud  Bey  and  of  similar  scoun- 
drels. 

"  Alas,  Monseigneur/'  I  answered,  "  even  thus  I  can- 
not accept  any  boon,  not  only  because  I  have  done 
nothing,  or  next  to  nothing,  to  deserve  a  reward,  but 
also  because  I  am  afraid  that  I  have  sometimes  done 
Your  Highness  an  injustice.  Long  as  I  have  known 
you,  Monseigneur,  yet  have  I  failed  to  read  you  entire- 
ly right,  and  I  beg  your  pardon  for  a  partial  blindness 
which  I  can  never  forgive  myself." 

"Oh,"  he  said,  with  a  rather  pathetic  little  smile, 
"  do  not  say  that ;  however  evil  you  may  have  thought 
me,  you  have  not  been  far  wrong.  I  am  at  the  present 
moment  enduring  an  hour  of  self -censure  and  find 
myself  in  an  humbled  mood — rare,  indeed,  with  me. 
I  am,  in  consequence,  inclined  to  display  such  poor 
qualities  as  I  may  possess;  but  I  know  myself  it  will 
not  last;  I  am  too  easily  led  astray  for  that." 

That  settled  it.  I  could,,  in  justice,  not  remain  silent 
any  longer.  To  be  sure,  I  had  given  Mahmoud  a  quasi 
promise  not  to  ruin  him,  but  peradventure,  by  making 
use  of  that  rare  mood  of  Tewfik's,  I  could  set  him  on 
his  guard  without  being  untrue  to  my  tacit  understand- 
ing with  the  wretched  aide-de-camp.  At  any  rate,  there 
was  no  hesitation  possible. 

"Monseigneur,"  I  said,  with  sudden  decision,  "I 
am  also  just  now  in  a  mood  rare  with  me.  I  am  un- 
decided— how  to  do  my  duty  towards  yourself  without 
breaking  a  half-promise  which,  although  given  to  a 
most  contemptible  scoundrel,  nevertheless  seems  bind- 
ing to  me,  after  a  fashion." 

The  Khedive  started  and  looked  at  me  in  surprise. 

262 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Whatever  do  you  mean?"  he  asked,  peering  into  my 
eyes  with  a  sudden  reawakening  of  his  suspicious 
nature.  There  was  a  little  fearsome  weakness  in  the 
slight  trembling  of  his  lips. 

"Simply  this/'  I  continued,  without  a  tremor,  for 
surely  he  cruelly  needed  a  helping  hand.  "Your 
Highness  is  too  confiding,  too  ready  to  underestimate 
the  greed  and  villany  of  those  whose  interest  it  is  to 
feather  their  nests  promptly  and  at  any  cost,  and  who 
take  advantage  of  every  passing  incident  to  attain  this 
end." 

A  strange  expression  of  eager,  almost  hungry,  curi- 
osity came  into  his  face,  as  if  an  oft-considered  and 
oppressive  question  had  been  recalled  to  his  mind,  and 
he  saw  at  last  a  way  of  discovering  the  answer.  He 
seemed  to  feel  all  at  once  as  might  some  very  simple, 
uncomprehending  person  on  waking  up  on  a  battle- 
field, or  in  a  place  of  wickedness  hitherto  quite  un- 
known to  him.  From  the  Galerie  des  F§tes  came  the 
music  of  the  "sleigh-bells  polka"  tinkling  persistently 
in  my  ears,  and  obscuring  mockingly  my  thoughts 
and  my  power  of  clear  diction.  I  paused  and  hesi- 
tated. The  shifty  look  of  uneasiness — almost  of  fear — 
in  Tevvfik's  eyes  grew  more  definite,  his  thick,  black 
brows  were  drawn  in  a  perplexed  frown,  and  I  felt  my 
glowing  impulse  to  save  him  from  the  traps  set  about 
his  feet  turn  cold  within  me ;  yet  I  strove  to  think  that 
he  was  susceptible  of  being  drawn  out  of  himself  and 
forced  into  better  and  nobler  ways,  and  struggled 
against  impatience,  discouragement,  and  a  sense  of 
helplessness  and  vague  anger ,  but  still  I  could  not  pre- 
vent my  voice  from  sounding  cold  and  repellent  in  my 
own  ears  as  I  resumed  my  hopeless  task. 

"There  are  in  your  entourage,  Sir,  many  envious 
and  consequently  dangerous  persons — I  do  not  pre- 
263 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

sume  that  this  is  news  to  you,  or  that  I  am  dis- 
playing great  acumen  in  stating  so  patent  a  fact — 
persons  who  abuse  your  confidence,  and  wholly  be- 
tray the  trust  placed  in  them.  Now,  ever  since  my 
husband  has  filled  the  post  which  he  secretly  holds  in 
your  service,  Monseigneur,  I  have  had  great  facilities 
for  keen  observation  at  my  disposal,  and  I  have  not 
wasted  them.  The  knowledge  thus  acquired  I  would 
like  to  place  at  your  disposal,  but  I  cannot  turn  informer. 
It  simply  goes  against  the  grain  with  me." 

Tewfik  looked  up  at  me  out  of  the  corner  of  his  soft, 
Oriental  eyes,  which  suddenly  twinkled  cunningly,  as 
if  he  at  last  began  to  understand  and  was  willing  to 
drive  a  hard  bargain. 

"Is  there  anybody  in  particular,"  he  said,  in  a  sharp, 
dry  voice,  "whom  you  wish  to  warn  me  against?" 

"There  is  somebody  very  much  in  particular,"  I 
replied,  with  blunt  directness ;  "  but  I  do  not  intend  to 
tell  you  who  it  is. " 

"Why  not?" 

"Because  it  would  not  be  quite  fair  play,  and  also 
because  I  can  serve  you  just  as  well,  I  begin  to  think, 
without  mentioning  names — at  present,  at  least." 

"How  can  you  do  that?" 

"Simply  by  entreating  you,  Monseigneur,  to  trust 
nobody  with  any  secrets  or  —  or  valuables,  without 
having  tested  their  loyalty  and  their  honesty  to  the 
very  core.  Nobody,  mind  you,  Monseigneur!" 

"  You  know,  then,  positively,  that  my  trust  has  been 
betrayed?" 

"I  do." 

"Lately?" 

"Yes,  comparatively  so." 

"  Has  this  betrayal — this  dishonesty — been  very  prej- 
udicial to  me?" 

264 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"That  depends.  I  believed  so  at  first,  but  lately  I 
have  thought  of  something  which  will  remedy  what  I 
know  to  have  happened." 

"Cannot  you  tell  me  how?" 

"Not  yet;  not  before  I  have  carried  my  project  to 
completion,  and  perhaps  not  at  all,  if  I  can  manage  to 
accomplish  as  much  as  I  hope  to  do." 

"  But  what  am  /  to  do — how  am  I  to  know  what  to 
do?"  he  said,  fretfully  and  with  asperity. 

"Monseigneur,"  I  said,  coldly,  "you  have  known 
me  for  a  long  time  now.  I  cannot  tell  whether  the 
opportunities  Your  Highness  has  had  of  understand- 
ing my  character  have  been  employed  to  the  utmost; 
but  one  thing,  at  least,  I  think  you  should  have 
learned,  and  that  is  that  if  I  undertake  to  do  a  thing  I 
generally  do  my  best  to  bring  it  to  a  satisfactory  con- 
clusion. I  volunteered  to  place  you  beyond  the  possi- 
bility— if  you  would  deign  to  accept  my  advice — of 
being  again  subjected  to  gross  dishonesty  and  dis- 
loyalty, and  it  looks,  therefore,  as  if  I  clearly  foresaw 
the  possibility  of  so  doing.  Permit  me  to  add,  however, 
that  if  I  am  to  succeed,  I  shall  have  to  demand  from 
you,  Sir,  a  promise  of  absolute  secrecy  with  regard  to 
what  has  passed  between  us  to-night." 

Tewfik  dropped  his  fretful  discontent  immediately 
and  looked  up  at  me  like  a  chidden  child. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon ;  please  do  not  be  offended ;  and 
rest  assured  that  I  trust  you  implicitly,  and  that  I  will 
do  just  as  you  advise,"  he  said,  somewhat  crestfallenly. 
"  Tell  me  what  it  is  you  wish  me  to  do. " 

"Really,  Monseigneur,"  I  replied,  with  an  inclina- 
tion to  laughter,  instantly  repressed,  "  I  must  apologize 
for  having  spoken  as  I  did  just  now;  it  was  quite  un- 
justifiable. But  I  have  lately  had  cause  for  a  good  deal 
of  worry,  and  I  am  afraid  that  my  temper  has  suffered 

265 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

sume  that  this  is  news  to  you,  or  that  I  am  dis- 
playing great  acumen  in  stating  so  patent  a  fact — 
persons  who  abuse  your  confidence,  and  wholly  be- 
tray the  trust  placed  in  them.  Now,  ever  since  my 
husband  has  filled  the  post  which  he  secretly  holds  in 
your  service,  Monseigneur,  I  have  had  great  facilities 
for  keen  observation  at  my  disposal,  and  I  have  not 
wasted  them.  The  knowledge  thus  acquired  I  would 
like  to  place  at  your  disposal,  but  I  cannot  turn  informer. 
It  simply  goes  against  the  grain  with  me." 

Tewfik  looked  up  at  me  out  of  the  corner  of  his  soft, 
Oriental  eyes,  which  suddenly  twinkled  cunningly,  as 
if  he  at  last  began  to  understand  and  was  willing  to 
drive  a  hard  bargain. 

"Is  there  anybody  in  particular,"  he  said,  in  a  sharp, 
dry  voice,  "whom  you  wish  to  warn  me  against?" 

"There  is  somebody  very  much  in  particular,"  I 
replied,  with  blunt  directness ;  "  but  I  do  not  intend  to 
tell  you  who  it  is." 

"Why  not?" 

"Because  it  would  not  be  quite  fair  play,  and  also 
because  I  can  serve  you  just  as  well,  I  begin  to  think, 
without  mentioning  names — at  present,  at  least." 

"How  can  you  do  that?" 

"Simply  by  entreating  you,  Monseigneur,  to  trust 
nobody  with  any  secrets  or  —  or  valuables,  without 
having  tested  their  loyalty  and  their  honesty  to  the 
very  core.  Nobody,  mind  you,  Monseigneur!" 

"  You  know,  then,  positively,  that  my  trust  has  been 
betrayed?" 

"I  do." 

"Lately?" 

"Yes,  comparatively  so." 

"  Has  this  betrayal — this  dishonesty — been  very  prej- 
udicial to  me?" 

264 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"That  depends.  I  believed  so  at  first,  but  lately  I 
have  thought  of  something  which  will  remedy  what  I 
know  to  have  happened." 

"Cannot  you  tell  me  how?" 

"Not  yet;  not  before  I  have  carried  my  project  to 
completion,  and  perhaps  not  at  all,  if  I  can  manage  to 
accomplish  as  much  as  I  hope  to  do." 

"  But  what  am  /  to  do — how  am  I  to  know  what  to 
do?"  he  said,  fretfully  and  with  asperity. 

"Monseigneur,"  I  said,  coldly,  "you  have  known 
me  for  a  long  time  now.  I  cannot  tell  whether  the 
opportunities  Your  Highness  has  had  of  understand- 
ing my  character  have  been  employed  to  the  utmost; 
but  one  thing,  at  least,  I  think  you  should  have 
learned,  and  that  is  that  if  I  undertake  to  do  a  thing  I 
generally  do  my  best  to  bring  it  to  a  satisfactory  con- 
clusion. I  volunteered  to  place  you  beyond  the  possi- 
bility— if  you  would  deign  to  accept  my  advice — of 
being  again  subjected  to  gross  dishonesty  and  dis- 
loyalty, and  it  looks,  therefore,  as  if  I  clearly  foresaw 
the  possibility  of  so  doing.  Permit  me  to  add,  however, 
that  if  I  am  to  succeed,  I  shall  have  to  demand  from 
you,  Sir,  a  promise  of  absolute  secrecy  with  regard  to 
what  has  passed  between  us  to-night." 

Tewfik  dropped  his  fretful  discontent  immediately 
and  looked  up  at  me  like  a  chidden  child. 

"  I  beg  your  pardon ;  please  do  not  be  offended ;  and 
rest  assured  that  I  trust  you  implicitly,  and  that  I  will 
do  just  as  you  advise,"  he  said,  somewhat  crestfallenly. 
" Tell  me  what  it  is  you  wish  me  to  do." 

"Really,  Monseigneur,"  I  replied,  with  an  inclina- 
tion to  laughter,  instantly  repressed,  "  I  must  apologize 
for  having  spoken  as  I  did  just  now;  it  was  quite  un- 
justifiable. But  I  have  lately  had  cause  for  a  good  deal 
of  worry,  and  I  am  afraid  that  my  temper  has  suffered 

265 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

thereby.  I  therefore  hope  that  you  will  forgive  a  breach 
of  etiquette  for  which  the  condescension  shown  to  me 
by  Your  Highness  is  alone  responsible." 

"  There  can  be  no  question  of  condescension  from  me  to 
you ;  it  is  quite  the  other  way  round,  as  you  must  know." 

I  inclined  my  head  with — I  flatter  myself — a  very 
proper  and  well-considered  mixture  of  appreciation 
for  so  overwhelming  a  compliment  and  of  polite  acqui- 
escence therein,  and  then  continued : 

"  To-morrow  I  will  do  myself  the  honor  of  communi- 
cating to  you,  Monseigneur,  what  it  seems  best  to  me 
for  Your  Highness  to  do.  In  the  meanwhile  let  me  ex- 
press my  deep  gratitude  for  the  gratifying  confidence 
placed  in  me.  It  shall  be  my  earnest  endeavor  to  de- 
serve it  always." 

When   we   recrossed   the   salons    we   met   Madame 

S  .  .  .  a  leaning  on  H o's  arm,  and  as  she  passed 

us,  with  a  low  courtesy  for  the  Khedive  and  a  most  acrid 
look  for  myself,  I  distinctly  heard  her  murmur  in  Rus- 
sian to  her  escort,  "Ah,  this  is  something  new!"  I 
caught  her  meaning  admirably,  and  regretted  that  she 
should  have  had  the  opportunity  of  adding  this  new 
arrow  to  her  quiverful  of  malicious  and  poisonous  in- 
tentions with  regard  to  me ;  but  as,  after  all,  I  could  do 
nothing  to  prevent  her  from  taking  evil  views  of  every- 
thing I  did,  I  dismissed  the  matter  resolutely  from  my 
mind. 

After  having  accompanied  Tewfik  to  the  screened 
balcony  where  the  Khedivia  was  ensconced  and  spent 
a  most  enjoyable  half-hour  with  her,  I  returned  to  the 
ballroom,  danced  a  quadrille  with  Prince  Hussein,  a 
waltz  with  Lord  H  .  .  .  s,  and  then  sending  for  Fred, 
who  had  been  playing  whist  for  the  past  two  hours  in 
a  distant  salon,  we  drove  home  under  the  paling  sky  in 
the  cool  shiver  of  the  rising  dawn. 

266 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

When  the  carriage  stopped  before  our  own  perron  I 
descended  and  paused,  looking  at  the  rose  garden.  I 
shall  not  go  to  bed,  I  thought,  as  the  first  rays  of 
sunrise  touched  the  nodding  flowers  with  pale  gold. 
I  shall  bathe  and  breakfast,  and  then  ride  over  to  my 
kind  old  friend  at  Rhoda.  The  time  has  come  when 
I  need  his  advice.  Then,  noticing  that  Fred  was 
yawning  dismally,  I  said,  with  a  laugh:  "Go  to  bed, 
you  poor,  tired-out  creature,  and  dream  of  anything 
but  Oriental  intrigues.  You  are  worn  out." 

He  half  turned,  with  the  evident  intention  of  asking 
me  what  I  meant,  but  weariness  conquered  and  he  dis- 
appeared inside  the  house,  attempting  ineffectually  to 
smother  another  yawn,  which  reminded  me  of  "  Yan- 
kee Doodle's"  famous  "  yowl  of  the  deserted  jackal." 

As  for  me,  I  gathered  my  white  velvet  cloak  more 
closely  about  my  shoulders,  and,  crossing  the  terrace, 
sought  my  dressing-room. 

Two  hours  later  I  was  on  my  way  to  Rhoda,  and 
on  my  return  home,  after  a  long  interview  with  the 
sagacious  and  keen-witted  hermit  of  that  lovely  The- 
baide,  I  sent  confidentially  to  the  Khedive  a  short 
letter,  in  which  I  told  him  that,  although  for  the  pres- 
ent it  was  impossible  for  me  to  explain  myself  more 
fully  in  regard  to  the  subject  which  we  had  discussed 
on  the  previous  night,  yet  the  occasion  for  me  to  do 
so  might  arise  at  any  moment,  and  that  in  the  mean- 
while, in  case  of  my  temporary  absence  or  of  my  death, 
my  good  friend  and  counsellor,  the  Due  d'A . . . .  t  had 
all  the  facts  concerning  the  affair  in  hand,  as  well  as 
absolute  proofs  of  my  allegations.  If  anything  super- 
vened which  rendered  it  peremptory  for  him  (the  Khe- 
dive) to  be  made  acquainted  with  the  names  of  the 
person  or  persons  who  had  rendered  themselves  guilty 
of  disloyalty  and  dishonesty  towards  himself,  M. 

267 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

d'A .  . . .  t  would  reveal  them  to  him.  I  concluded  by 
entreating  him  to  resort  to  this  only  under  stress  of 
necessity,  and,  well  aware  that  there  was  so  little  love 
lost  between  himself  and  the  Duke  that  he  would  not 
approach  him  excepting  at  the  last  extremity,  I  pre- 
pared to  endure  the  manifold  tortures  of  a  second  Egyp- 
tian summer  with  the  help  of  a  blameless  conscience! 

As  the  hot  season  arrived  I  began  to  feel  the  effects 
of  the  many  fatigues  and  anxieties  through  which  I 
had  passed  during  the  last  two  years,  and  a  sense  of 
languor  and  discouragement  which  I  had  never  ex- 
perienced before  made  it  necessary  for  me  to  summon 
all  my  reserve  strength  to  my  assistance.  The  political 
situation  was  graver  than  ever.  Fred  was  forced  to 
work  early  and  late,  and  in  my  eagerness  to  help  him 
I  cast  all  hygienic  prudence  to  the  winds.  Weeks  of 
scorching  heat,  interspersed  by  frightful  khamsins 
and  ghastly  sand-storms,  came  and  went;  twice  we 
followed  the  Khedive  to  Rhamleh  and  Alexandria,  and 
twice  we  came  back  to  poor,  sun-baked  Cairo,  deserted 
by  all  save  the  diplomats  and  officers  of  the  army  of 
occupation,  who,  as  I  was  the  only  European  woman 
in  the  place,  congregated  at  my  house  every  night  in 
their  tens  and  twenties  and  paid  me  loyal  homage! 

At  last  the  weather  grew  a  little  cooler,  but  only  for 
a  short  time,  and,  far  from  reviving  me,  this  respite 
seemed  to  do  me  more  harm  than  good,  and  I  heard 
with  dismay  that  I  was  expected  to  crown  all  my  mis- 
eries by  giving  a  gala  dinner  to  a  score  of  Egyptian 
high  officials,  and  another  score  of  British,  French, 
German,  Russian,  and  Italian  diplomats,  so  that  they 
might  have  an  opportunity  to  discuss  several  grave 
and  delicate  topics  on  neutral  ground.  With  a  sinking 
heart  I  threw  myself  once  more  into  the  fray,  and 
reached  the  day  of  this  unwelcome  banquet  with 

268 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

scarcely  strength  enough  to  realize  how  very  weak  I 
had  become. 

The  heat  that  lay  over  Cairo  increased  instead  of 
lessening  as  night  came  on.  Sahla  was  in  despair, 
for  he  was  afraid  that  the  beauty  of  the  house,  filled 
with  flowers  and  gay  with  all  sorts  of  cunningly  de- 
vised decorations,  due  to  his  innate  artistic  taste,  would 
be  spoiled  by  this  intolerable  temperature.  He  and 
Paul  stood  in  the  dining-room,  asking  each  other  for 
the  hundredth  time,  at  least,  whether  my  guests  would 
venture  out,  or  whether,  for  the  first  time  in  these  faith- 
ful servitors'  memory,  a  soiree  at  my  house  would  be  a 
fiasco. 

Before  undertaking  the  business  of  dressing  I  made 
my  usual  tour  of  inspection.  The  whole  place  looked 
ghostly  to  me  for  some  unexplainable  reason,  in  spite 
of  the  wealth  of  copper  -  colored  azaleas  and  sulphur- 
hued  roses  which  filled  every  available  nook  and  cor- 
ner, and  as  I  walked  through  the  —  comparatively 
speaking — cool  and  scented  corridors  I  shuddered  a 
little.  Everything  was  exquisitely  arranged ;  the  sweet 
breath  of  flowers  filled  the  whole  house,  and  I  had  no 
reason  for  dissatisfaction ;  yet  I  had  never  in  all  my 
life  been  so  blue  as  on  that  evening. 

Wearily  I  sought  my  dressing  -  room  and  put  my- 
self in  the  hands  of  my  women,  but  my  temples 
throbbed  so  violently  that  I  soon  bade  them  stop  their 
exasperating  efforts  to  make  me  look  anything  but  a 
washed-out  doll,  and  stepped  out  upon  the  balcony  to 
see  if  the  air — even  suffocating  as  it  was — would  re- 
vive me.  All  outside,  however,  swam  around  me  like 
a  mist  of  shadowy  forms  and  floating  clouds ;  the  great 
trees  in  the  gardens  seemed  to  retreat ;  I  saw  their  im- 
mobile branches  as  from  a  long  distance;  small  sounds 
seemed  to  have  strangely  increased  in  volume;  and 

269 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  whispers  of  the  maids  behind  me  hammered  mur- 
derously on  my  brain. 

I  leaned  my  head  on  my  hands,  and  for  once  dis- 
tinctly felt  that  I  had  reached  the  limit  of  my  faculties, 
and  that  I  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  down  altogether. 
I  was  so  uncertain  of  myself  as  I  stood  there  leaning 
dizzily  against  the  jamb  of  the  French  window  that  I 
actually  debated  for  a  moment  whether  to  go  on 
dressing  or  to  go  to  bed  and  let  my  distinguished  guests 
take  care  of  themselves !  Was  I,  then,  after  all,  going 
to  give  way?  A  feeling  of  disgust  at  my  weakness 
ran  through  me.  I  literally  flung  myself  back  into 
my  dressing-room,  and  with  clinched  teeth  allowed 
my  toilet  to  be  completed,  the  excitement  engendered 
by  the  intense  effort  to  conquer  myself  driving  me  on, 
and  making  me  temporarily  disregard  headache  and 
misery. 

My  first  and  last  look  at  the  glass  showed  me  a 
peaked,  pinched,  paper-white  face,  lighted  by  my  eyes 
rendered  abnormally  big  by  fever.  "This  will  never 
do,"  I  muttered  to  myself,  and  then,  turning  to  Jo- 
hanna, I  said,  brusquely,  "  Bring  me  a  glass  of  water 
and  my  little  travelling  medicine-case,"  and  when  she 
had  obeyed  I  swallowed  a  large  dose  of  strychnia, 
which  in  a  short  while  brought  back  some  of  my 
usual  strength. 

I  was  dressed  in  white,  as  usual,  and  wore  a  quantity 
of  emeralds,  set  to  represent  diamond  -  encircled  tre- 
foils, the  small  tiara  standing  up  high  in  my  hair,  and 
a  gigantic  lizard,  made  entirely  of  emeralds  (save  his 
eyes,  which  were  two  huge,  canary-hued  diamonds), 
upholding  a  long  trail  of  laburnum  falling  from  the 
left  shoulder  to  the  right  side  of  the  Venetian  lace  train. 
The  cold  touch  of  the  gems  aroused  me  from  the  cloudy 
dreams  that  seemed  so  strangely  to  beset  me,  and  I 

270 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

musingly  stroked  the  glittering  scales  of  the  lizard — 
one  of  my  favorite  jewels. 

How  well  I  remembered  the  day  when  my  Empress 
had  given  it  to  me,  concealed  in  a  great  cluster  of  edel- 
weiss gathered  by  herself  in  the  mountains  above  Ischl, 
in  the  good  old  times  when  we  used  to  share  our  griefs 
and  joys  like  sisters!  She  knew  that  I  loved  jewels, 
not  only  on  account  of  their  lustre  and  beauty,  but 
because,  following  the  old  occultist  idea,  I  imputed  to 
them  a  sort  of  dim  personality,  a  latent  life  which  in- 
fluenced one's  destiny,  so  that  they  were,  in  a  way, 
little  companions  on  the  road  of  life,  conscious  of  the 
wearer's  feelings,  and  capable  of  attaching  themselves 
to  her  in  more  ways  than  one.  This  belief — supersti- 
tious, if  you  will — refused  to  be  shaken  off,  and  though 
I  never  would  acknowledge  it,  I  cared  for  my  mag- 
nificent collection  of  gems  more  than  it  is  possible 
to  care  for  merely  inanimate  objects.  Indeed,  though 
it  may  seem  intensely  ridiculous  to  say  so,  I  could  not 
imagine  life  without  jewels,  and  thought  that  such  a 
one  would  be,  in  a  way,  an  empty  and  lonely  existence. 

After  all,  why  should  the  idea  be  an  absurd  one? 
Why  should  we,  who  comprehend  so  little  of  the  lives 
of  our  nearest  and  dearest,  find  it  impossible  to  conceive 
of  a  life  other  than  that  of  the  animal  or  vegetable? 
Between  such  an  existence  and  that  of  the  plant  there 
would  be  surely  no  greater  or  more  wonderful  differ- 
ence than  separates  the  plant  from  man.  We,  in  our 
pride  of  being  created  a  little  lower  than  the  angels, 
deny  consciousness  and  feeling  to  the  world  of  trees 
and  flowers,  because  it  does  not  possess  our  nervous 
system,  and  beyond  that  world  the  existence  of  life 
itself,  on  account  of  the  lack  of  what  we  are  pleased  to 
term  vital  phenomena.  If,  however,  one  has  sufficient 
imagination  and  intellectuality  to  do  justice  to  the 

271 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

vegetable,  is  it  hard  to  think  a  pearl,  an  emerald,  or  a 
sapphire  susceptible  of  suffering — not  acute,  indeed,  as 
ours,  but  nevertheless  suffering — from  neglect,  obscur- 
ity, or  lack  of  appreciation  and  care? 

Fred  used  always  to  say,  laughingly,  that  my  taste 
for  big  jewels  was  barbaric,  and  that  I  owed  it  to  the 
Muscovite  half  of  my  nature — failing  in  this,  for  once, 
to  recognize  my  true  motive. 

"The  future  of  the  whole  world  is  with  Russia/'  I 
used  to  reply,  perversely  if  truthfully.  "Russians 
may  be  barbarous,  cruel,  fierce,  fickle,  and  artificial 
all  at  once  —  I  mean  patrician  Russians,  of  course; 
but  it  is  just  because  they  are  made  up  of  conflicting 
elements  which  have  not  as  yet  become  homogeneous 
that  from  them  will  come  the  dominant  race  of  the 
future." 

I  had,  however,  but  little  desire  that  evening  to  in- 
dulge in  philosophical  or  in  political  apergus,  all  my 
energy  being  bent  on  holding  myself  upright,  and  in 
not  betraying  the  fact  that  I  was  on  the  verge  of  col- 
lapse. I  knew  that  in  a  few  more  moments  forty  guests 
would  drive  through  my  gates,  and  that  it  was  my 
bounden  duty  to  receive  them  smilingly  and  to  do  all 
within  my  power  to  make  the  evening  a  success,  and 
as  I  slowly  walked  down  the  length  of  the  hall  to  join 
Fred  in  the  central  salon  I  concentrated  my  attention 
upon  that  one  point  and  upon  no  other. 

As  the  tall  Louis  Quatorze  clock  in  the  dining-room 
boomed  forth  the  hour  of  nine  we  seated  ourselves 
around  the  table,  upon  which  "  Rose-Turque  "  and  am- 
ber shaded  candles  burned  amid  strongly  scented  flow- 
ers. The  heat  was  oppressive,  and  not  even  the  punkah 
gave  any  relief  from  the  awful  sensation  caused  by  the 

damp  burning  of  the  sweltering  night.  H o  was 

the  only  one  of  my  guests  who  really  talked.  He  gave 

272 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

his  rich  imagination  full  play,  making  it  sparkle  about 
his  subject  with  a  sort  of  deliberate  exuberance,  as  if  he 
wished  to  whirl  us  all  with  him  into  a  pleasanter  and 
cooler  world.  I  listened  to  him  with  rapt  attention, 
trying  to  forget  the  odd  feeling  of  dizziness  and  faint- 
ness  which  at  times  almost  overcame  me.  With  my 
left  hand  I  clasped  the  handle  of  my  fan ;  the  other  lay 
clinched  upon  the  table  -  cloth  as  I  leaned  forward 
towards  him;  there  was  no  relaxation  of  my  aching 
muscles,  no  throwing  off  of  tension,  and  it  seemed  to 
me  as  if  my  parched  lips  would  never  join  again. 

At  last  I  succeeded  in  partly  shaking  off  the  strange 
sensation  of  helplessness  which  numbed  me.  I  took  a 
peach  from  a  dish  before  me  and  began  slowly  to  peel 
it ;  once  or  twice  my  fruit-knife  struck  the  plate  with  a 
tiny  ringing  sound  of  the  gold  upon  the  crystal,  and  I 
started  as  if  a  pistol  had  been  let  off  in  my  ear.  Oppo- 
site me,  on  a  console,  there  was  a  Japanese  bronze  mon- 
ster with  green  jade  eyes,  and,  glancing  up,  I  fancied 
that  in  the  dim  light  it  was  cautiously  regarding  me 
as  if  it  would  penetrate  my  soul.  Indeed,  I  could  not 
for  a  moment  help  fancying  that  it  was  alive,  and  was 
gaining  a  curious  ascendency  over  me,  and  suddenly  I 
leaned  back  in  my  chair  and  burst  out  laughing. 

"What's  the  joke?"  said  Fred,  a  little  anxiously,  I 
thought. 

"  My  own  folly/'  I  replied.  "  I  found  myself  think- 
ing that  this  little  devil  yonder  " — and  I  pointed  at  the 
delicately  and  cunningly  wrought  figure — "  was  beck- 
oning to  me,"  and  I  went  on  laughing  in  a  way  that 
was  not  natural,  while  that  little  demon  with  the  face 
of  death  seemed  to  whisper  funny  words  to  me  across 
the  table  and  over  the  heads  of  my  guests.  I  tried  to 
understand  whence  emanated  the  spell  that  was  en- 
veloping me  more  and  more,  but  failed  lamentably, 
'*  273 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  sought  in  vain  to  call  to  my  assistance  a  little  of 
that  commonplace  common-sense  upon  which  I  gen- 
erally prided  myself.  Soon,  from  the  strangeness  of 
it  all,  arose  an  overmastering  sense  of  terror,  and, 
hurriedly  giving  the  signal  to  leave  the  table,  I  took 
R  .  .  .  z  Pasha's  arm  and  walked  with  unequal,  nervous 
steps  to  the  drawing-room,  where  I  sank  exhausted  on 
a  deep  arm-chair  between  two  open  windows.  In  spite 
of  all  effort  I  was  beset  by  an  impression  that  was  novel 
to  me  and  horrible — an  impression  that  I  was  defend- 
ing myself  against  the  fierce  fury,  the  measureless 
hatred  and  cruelty  of  something  shapeless  and  intangi- 
ble, which  I  could  not  repulse.  I  felt  as  if  the  great, 
spacious,  luxurious  room  were  a  cage,  and  I  were  shut 
up  in  it  with  that  disembodied  being,  who,  if  it  had 
its  will,  would  never  allow  me  to  escape  alive.  Was  I 
going  insane?  I  looked  out  into  the  velvety  darkness 
of  the  night,  my  whole  strength  put  out  to  vanquish 
the  ghastly  sensation  of  insecurity,  the  helplessly 
reeling  brain,  the  increasing  trembling  of  every  limb. 

"Are  you  ill?    You  look  dreadfully." 

The  words  fell  on  my  ear  and  roused  me  to  instant 
and  overpowering  passion.  I  turned  fiercely  towards 
Fred,  who  was  bending  over  the  back  of  my  chair,  and 
had  whispered  this  very  natural  and  certainly  most  ex- 
cusable question  hurriedly  to  me,  and  said,  furiously, 
although  in  a  voice  as  low  as  his  own : 

"111!  What  nonsense!  I  never  was  better  in  my 
life.  Do  go  away  and  attend  to  your  guests.  You 
annoy  me!" 

A  pained  and  surprised  expression  came  into  his 
eyes,  for  it  was  not  my  habit  to  be  either  harsh  or  im- 
patient with  him,  and  I  could  see,  in  spite  of  my  rap- 
idly increasing  haziness  and  irresponsibility,  that  he 
was  deeply  hurt.  I  did  not,  however,  apologize,  but 

274 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

without  a  single  pang  of  regret  for  my  unusual  lack 
of  even  common  courtesy  watched  him  turn  abruptly 
away  and  pass  into  the  first  salon,  where  the  greatest 
number  of  those  present  were  still  lingering. 

"  Let  us  go  out  upon  the  terrace ;  it  is  too  warm  here/' 
I  said  to  the  Prime-Minister,  who  did  not  seem  to  have 
noticed  my  queer  condition,  for  he  instantly  rose  and 
followed  me  with  some  trivial  remark  about  the  weather. 
The  comparative  freshness  of  the  air  revived  me  as  soon 
as  I  had  left  the  brilliantly  lighted  drawing-room,  and, 
leaning  upon  the  marble  balustrade,  I  looked  down  into 
the  dusky  gardens,  from  which  rose  a  violent  perfume 
of  jasmine. 

With  elaborate  attention  I  listened  to  what  my  com- 
panion said  about  the  imprudence  I  was  committing 
in  remaining  a  second  summer  in  Cairo,  and  managed 
to  answer  him  suitably,  but  I  was  unpleasantly  con- 
scious of  the  extraordinary  fashion  in  which  I  was  clip- 
ping some  of  my  words  and  running  the  rest  into  one 
another,  and  I  determined  to  remain  silent,  if  I  could,  un- 
til this  new  and  bewildering  symptom  had  passed  away. 

Fortunately  the  old  man  had  launched  himself  into 
a  long  dissertation  concerning  the  alteration  which 
the  cutting  of  the  Suez  Canal  had  caused  in  the  climate 
of  northern  Egypt,  and  this  giving  me  a  chance  to 
remain  mute,  I  softly  and  quietly  busied  myself  with 
the  complete  destruction  of  my  fan,  splintering  the 
carved  mother-of-pearl  sticks,  and  tearing  to  shreds 
the  long,  graceful  ostrich-feathers,  which  I  dropped 
into  the  flower-beds  below  with  the  joy  of  a  child  float- 
ing paper  butterflies  in  the  breeze ;  and  when  the  wreck 
of  that  pretty  toy  was  complete  I  bent  low  over  the 
terrace  wall,  feeling  as  if  I  were  suspended  in  mid-air 
above  some  dark  and  narrow  pit,  pressing  a  hated  thing 
down  to  perdition. 

275 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Suddenly  I  felt  as  if  I  was  falling  to  the  very  bot- 
tom of  that  unfathomable  abyss ;  a  sensation  of  mortal 
sickness  gained  upon  me,  making  me  think  that  blood 
was  surging  in  my  eyes,  and  that  my  heart  was  be- 
coming cold  and  faint;  great  blotches  of  darkness 
leaped  before  me,  forming  demoniacal  patterns  which 
rushed  together  like  those  in  a  kaleidoscope,  separated 
again,  and  then  scattered  in  all  directions  at  once.  I 
said  something — what,  I  never  could  remember — caught 
my  breath,  choked,  fought  for  air,  strove  to  cry  out,  to 
rush  forward,  but  my  voice  was  strangled  in  my  throat ; 
then  I  fell  in  a  heap  at  the  feet  of  the  Prime-Minister, 
striking  my  head  against  the  marble  balustrade. 

I  do  not  think,  however,  that  I  was  even  momen- 
tarily in  a  faint,  for  I  had  a  clear  inward  sense  of  my 
condition,  although  I  no  longer  noticed  what  was  go- 
ing on  about  me,  nor  felt  the  touch  of  those  who  came 
to  my  assistance.  I  looked  back  over  my  past,  as  a 
drowning  man  does  when  he  first  sinks  below  the  sur- 
face of  the  water,  and  I  felt  as  if  I  had  undertaken  a 
journey  to  a  fearful  distance,  and  was  hurrying  with 
incredible  swiftness  upon  the  road  I  had  once  slowly 
travelled.  Like  a  meteor  my  mind  shot  onward  along 
the  vanished  days,  observing,  as  I  went,  their  wisdom 
and  their  folly,  and  at  last  I  caught  myself  murmuring 
in  Bas-Breton  little  snatches  of  childish  songs,  the 
final  words  of  which  were  frequently  missing,  which 
greatly  vexed  me.  Hours,  days,  weeks — ah,  God! 
months  passed,  as  I  found  out  afterwards,  in  this 
guise,  punctuated  by  the  monotonous  refrains  of  the 
melodies  which  had  rocked  me  to  sleep  twenty  years 
before : 

"  Teuss,  Teuss  Arpouliek 
Galaichen 

Teuss  Arpouliek  duj" 
276 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  distinctly  saw  Teuss  Arpoultik — the  three-headed 
devil,  with  many  gleaming  teeth  and  eyes — the  evil 
spirit  of  the  Bretons;  I  distinctly  heard  the  Kariqfret 
Ancou — death's  wheelbarrow — rattle  dismally  at  every 
turn  of  its  ghostly  wheel,  and  driven  by  Teuss  himself, 
with  a  whip  made  of  serpents,  to  urge  the  minor  devils 
of  his  suite  on  and  on  and  on,  amid  the  shrieks  of  hur- 
ricane and  tempest  and  the  rush  of  mountainous  waves. 

That  final  concert  of  tumbling,  hissing  waters  never 
failed  to  change  my  entire  train  of  thought.  I  longed 
for  the  cool,  salty  air  of  Brittany,  for  the  delicious  sense 
of  freedom  I  had  always  enjoyed  on  my  beloved  cliffs, 
and  I  imagined  sometimes  that  I  was  back  there  once 
more,  dancing  lightly  on  the  edge  of  the  abyss,  where 
the  sea  leaped  against  the  invincible  rocky  bastions, 
feeling  the  boisterous  wind  on  my  face,  hearing  the 
surge,  and  the  mournful  noise  of  the  shingle  sliding  up 
and  down  the  narrow,  rock-strewn  beach  far  below  me — 

"  Jusqu'au  revoir  la  belle, 
Bient6t  nous  reviendrons. 

Toutouie  la-la — Toutouie  la-la  I 
Dans  le  goemon  hurle  la  vague ! 

Toutouie  la-la !" 

Why  had  I  come  out  of  my  true  life,  my  own  land, 
to  perish  miserably  of  thirst  and  of  heat  in  this  place 
of  endless  sand  and  scorching  sun-glare,  where  I  was 
now  struggling  for  breath? 

I  tossed  restlessly,  throwing  out  my  arms  and  fight- 
ing constantly  to  get  away  from  that  overpowering 
atmosphere  which  surrounded  me  always.  I  had  nev- 
er before  known  "what  hell  is,  in  waiting  to  abide  I" 
Sometimes  I  would  yearn  cruelly  also  for  the  tranquil  Al- 
pine loveliness  of  Upper  Austria,  the  scent  of  mountain 
strawberries  and  forest  blossoms,  the  fragrance  of  the 
great  pine  woods,  the  silver,  glacier-fed  streams  tum- 

277 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

bling  over  moss-grown  bowlders.  The  snowy  sum- 
mits of  the  Dachstein  and  Thorstein  gleamed  whitely 
afar  off,  and  my  heart  went  out  to  the  light  -  hearted, 
brave  people  living  beneath  those  mighty  buttresses  of 
ice  in  the  haunts  of  the  chamois  and  the  golden  eagle. 

Once  I  partly  came  to  myself,  opened  wide  my  eyes, 
which  I  had  stubbornly  kept  closed  since  many  days 
and  nights,  in  order,  no  doubt,  to  better  follow  the  tan- 
talizing visions  which  were  at  once  a  joy  and  a  despair, 
and  looked  about  me.  I  gazed  at  the  ceiling  and  the 
walls  of  my  room,  where  golden  dragons  disported 
themselves  among  fantastic  blooms  on  a  background 
of  azure  silk,  then  at  the  carefully  shaded  lamp  stand- 
ing on  a  pedestal  at  the  foot  of  my  bed,  then  again  at  the 
mosquito-curtain  of  light-blue  gauze  veined  with  silver, 
which,  for  the  first  time  in  my  knowledge  of  it,  was 
looped  back  with  ribbons  against  the  supports  of  the 
canopy  above  my  head. 

Two  ideas  alternated  in  my  mind,  two  visions  stood 
fluctuating  before  me ;  in  one  I  stood  a  strong,  healthy, 
happy  figure ;  in  the  other  I  was  but  a  haggard,  ghost- 
like, emaciated  being,  tottering  feebly  on  palsied  feet. 
I  sighed  a  little  and  fell  to  examining  my  thin,  trans- 
parent, waxen  hands  with  quite  disproportionate  sor- 
row. How  would  I  ever  again  control  horses  with  these 
little,  weak  fingers,  looking  as  delicate  as  the  claws  of 
an  unfledged  bird?  I  kept  them  open,  resting,  palm 
upturned,  upon  the  azure  coverlet,  a  queer  sensation 
of  disgust  and  despair  coming  over  me.  The  feverish 
thirst  and  fainting  weariness  I  was  enduring  were  as 
nothing  compared  with  the  thought  that  I  would  now 
be  forever  helpless  and  a  burden  to  others. 

No!  no!  it  was  best  to  die,  I  thought,  with  a  groan. 
I  felt  all  this  in  my  body  as  well  as  in  my  mind,  an  in- 
exorable grief  which  surely  nothing  could  assuage. 

278 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Cold  perspiration  broke  out  upon  me;  anguish  ran 
searchingly  through  my  entire  being  like  some  ruth- 
less investigator,  scattering,  destroying,  mingling,  and 
separating  all  my  sensations.  My  teeth  were  set;  I 
breathed  with  a  hissing  swiftness,  and  stretched  my- 
self as  if  in  obedience  to  the  summons  of  the  rack.  As 
I  did  so  I  turned  my  head  slightly  and  saw  Fred  lying 
in  an  arm-chair  close  to  the  head  of  my  bed,  fast  asleep ; 
his  face  was  white  and  drawn,  and  he  was  much  thinner 
than  I  had  ever  seen  him.  Beads  of  perspiration  were 
dropping  from  his  forehead,  and  in  his  hand  he  held 
limply  the  palm-leaf  fan  with  which  he  had  evidently 
been  fanning  me.  I  tried  to  stretch  out  my  arm  to 
touch  him,  but  I  could  not  do  so,  and  tears  of  vexation 
at  my  utter  helplessness  sprung  to  my  eyes.  I  kept 
very  quiet,  the  complete  silence  of  the  room  weighing 
like  lead  upon  me,  and  I  fancied  that  even  the  ticking 
of  a  clock  would  have  been  a  relief.  Once  more  I  glanced 
at  the  walls;  the  dragons  were  no  longer  quiet  and 
decorous ;  they  had  grown  angry  like  myself,  and  were 
clawing  at  each  other  furiously. 

"I  must  send  them  all  away;  they  make  my  head 
ache/'  I  muttered,  and  tried  to  rise.  "Hush!  Hush! 
Hush!"  I  called  out  to  the  tangle  of  beasts  writhing  all 
around  me.  I  thought  I  heard  some  one  crying  out; 
an  extraordinary  vagueness  came  over  me;  an  odd 
sensation  of  swimming  lightness  invaded  my  brain. 
I  was  still  partially  conscious,  but  was,  nevertheless, 
eagerly  travelling  on  some  incoherent  errand,  singing 
idly  the  while,  and  groping  my  way  towards  I  knew 
not  what!  Little  by  little  the  dim  glimmer  vouch- 
safed me  of  the  world  of  fact  and  matter  faded  away, 
until  at  last  I  sank  completely  back  into  the  dreamy, 
confused  unreality  of  the  past  weeks. 


CHAPTER    VII 

"  Och,  Patsy,"  said  Mary, 
"  It's  cruel,  unfair  ye 

Are  actin',  an'  heartless,  to  go  to  New  York  I 
It's  a  bad  counthry.     There's 
Such  woild  bulls,  Injuns,  bears, 

An'  naygurs !     Acushla,  stay  wid  me  in  Cork  I" 

"  Och,  Mary,"  said  Pat, 
"  If  it's  cryin'  ye 're  at, 

Me  heart,  loike  me  pockuts,  ye  turn  inside  out! 
Sure  I'll  just  cut  me  way,  thin, 
Through  the  bastes  an'  the  haythin, 

Till  I  come  where  the  gold  is  a-layin    about." 

M.  M. 

"SlNG  that  again  from  the  beginning/'  I  pleaded, 
and  Jerry  began  to  sing,  or,  rather,  to  recite  in  mono- 
tone, in  his  deep,  mellow  voice,  the  pathetic  little  Bre- 
ton ballad,  accompanying  himself  en  sourdine  on  a 
banjo  as  he  did  so: 

"  Comme  il  courait,  il  tomba, 

Et  Ion,  Ion,  laire, 

Et  Ion,  Ion,  la, 
Comme  il  courait,  il  tomba, 
Et  par  terre  le  coeur  roula! 

"  Et  1'cceur  disait  en  tombant, 
Et  Ion,  Ion,  laire, 
Et  Ion,  Ion,  la, 
Et  1'coeur  disait  en  pleurant 
T'es-tu  fait  mal,  mon  enfant?" 
280 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

I  was  lying  in  a  hammock  on  the  lawn,  beneath  a 
tent  of  embroidered  Egyptian  cloth;  the  heat  of  sum- 
mer was  over,  and  the  rhododendrons  were  just  be- 
ginning to  bloom  anew.  Beside  me  sat  Fred,  holding 
one  of  my  hands,  and  Jerry,  who  had  returned  from 
Abyssinia  suddenly  during  the  most  critical  period  of  my 
illness,  and  had  remained  to  help  nurse  me  back  to  life. 

Wistfully  I  listened  to  the  little  song  which  brought 
back  to  me  the  picture  of  home,  of  the  waves  lifting 
their  crests  and  breaking  against  the  basalt  cliffs,  and 
of  the  seamews  skimming  above  the  rippling,  glancing 
waters  of  the  bay.  I  pressed  my  hands  closer  together 
and  said,  tentatively :  "  Am  I  not  well  enough  yet  to  go 
away?" 

My  two  companions  were  silent,  looking  at  me  with 
doubtful  eyes.  There  was  a  tinkling  of  tiny  bells  in 
the  garden  and  my  pet  gazelle  bounded  towards  me, 
shaking  her  silver  collar  mischievously,  and  tossing 
her  dainty  head  to  attract  attention. 

"Oh,  you  beauty!"  I  said,  laughing;  "you  do  not 
know  what  suffering  or  pain  or  disappointment  mean  ; 
that  is  why  you  are  so  pretty  and  sweet  and  altogether 
lovable!" 

"  Can  one  not  be  sweet  and  pretty  and  lovable  other- 
wise?" asked  Jerry.  "I  thought  that  we  had  all  seen 
this  difficult  feat  accomplished  successfully  here  of  late. " 

"  This  is  a  tender  point  with  me  just  now,"  I  replied, 
running  my  fingers  through  the  short  curls,  now,  alas  1 
replacing  the  heavy  braids  which  had  fallen  under  the 
doctor's  scissors.  "Illness  is  a  harsh  taskmaster, 
and  although 

"  '  Le  pauvre  en  sa  cabane  oti  le  chaume  le  couvre 

Est  sujet  a  ses  lois, 

Et  la  garde  qui  veille  aux  barrieres  du  Louvre 
N'en  defend  point  nos  Roisl' 
281 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

yet  it  is  a  penalty  hard  indeed  to  bear,  because 
one  has  during  its  course  to  reveal,  nolens  volens,  the 
exact  dose  of  selfishness  which  one  possesses.  My 
confessor  tells  me  unwearyingly  that  such  an  ex- 
perience is  intended  to  wean  us  from  the  joys  of  earth ; 
but  I  for  one  cannot  agree  with  him,  because  I  never 
have  desired  so  greatly  to  be  able  to  wander  amid  green 
forests  or  along  the  cliffs  of  mine  own  land,  to  ride  and 
drive  and  sail,  and,  in  one  word,  enjoy  what  to  me,  at 
least,  makes  up  the  chief  pleasures  of  life,  as  since  I 
have  been  imprisoned  by  the  very  evil  which  that  holy 
man  considers  'a  most  salutary  lesson  of  detach- 
ment.'" 

Fred  got  up  and  walked  towards  the  house,  calling 
back  with  a  forced  gayety  which  I  had  for  some  time 
noticed  was  growing  habitual  to  him:  "I  am  going 
to  order  your  beef-tea.  It  is  time  for  you  to  take  it, 
you  dissatisfied  and  complaining  woman!  You  were 
an  angel  while  you  were  ill ;  don't  try  to  make  up  for 
it  now!"  and  his  mirthless  laugh  rang  on  the  golden 
afternoon  air  like  a  sort  of  warning  which  made  me 
wince. 

"Jerry,  what  is  the  matter  with  him?"  I  asked,  anx- 
iously. "He  is  not  himself  at  all,  and  it  cannot  be 
mere  fatigue  and  worry  which  have  changed  him  so!" 

"Poor  old  chap,  you  do  not  realize  how  fearful  he 
was  of  losing  you — as  who  shouldn't  be,  if  you  permit 
me  to  say  so — and  then  remember  that  for  week  after 
week  he  hardly  left  your  bedside,  day  or  night;  in- 
deed, when  I  arrived  I  had  almost  to  use  force  to  oblige 
him  to  take  some  rest!" 

"Yes,  I  know.  Is  he  not  a  wonderful  nurse?  But 
still  at  his  age  one  is  not  permanently  saddened  by 
such  an  experience,  especially  as  he  has  had  the — in 
my  opinion— somewhat  questionable  bliss  of  seeing 

282 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

me  recover  from  this  delightful  attack  of  typhoid.  No, 
no ;  mark  my  words,  there  is  something  preying  on  his 
mind,  but  what,  I  do  not  know  how  to  discover." 

"  My  dear  girl,  are  you  sure  that  you  are  not  a  little 
fanciful  about  this?  I  grant  you  that  he  does  not  look 
either  as  well  or  as  happy  as  last  year,  but  this  surely 
can  readily  be  accounted  for,  as  I  said  just  now,  by  what 
he  has  been  through  during  the  past  four  months." 

I  threw  myself  impatiently  back  on  my  cushions, 
swinging  the  hammock  quite  perilously  as  I  did  so. 
"Why,  Jerry,"  I  exclaimed,  "you  must  be  as  blind  as 
a  bat;  he  is  so  altered  that  sometimes  I  hardly  know 
him !  He  does  not  look  older,  he  does  not  look  actually 
unhappy,  but  his  whole  personality  suggests  resist- 
ance and  concealment,  a  weight  too  heavy  for  one's 
shoulders,  as  it  were,  and  stubbornness,  too — his  eyes 
have  a  furtive,  obstinate  look.  I  know  that  behind  all 
this  lies  some  evil  or  other." 

"But  if  you  really  believe  all  this,  question  him, 
draw  him  out;  he  cannot  withstand  your  influence. 
You  realize  that,  don't  you?" 

I  laughed  aloud.  "My  influence!"  I  said,  bitterly. 
"  I  am  a  nice  one,  am  I  not,  to  charm  any  one,  particu- 
larly my  own  husband,  into  doing  what  he  distinctly 
does  not  want  to  do?  Have  you  looked  at  me  lately, 
Jerry?"  I  continued,  quite  unabashed  by  an  emphatic 
shrug  of  his  shoulders  more  eloquent  than  polite. 
"Physically  and' mentally  I  am  an  excellent  picture 
of  a  wreck,  with  a  sixteenth-century  dimness  over  it 
which  I  recommend  to  your  kind  attention!  No,  you 
are  not  to  pay  me  any  compliments,  my  dear ;  it  would 
only  vex  me,  although  I  am  sure  that  you  are  quite 
sincere  when  you  make  them." 

"  I  will  not  make  you  any  compliments ;  but  I  must 
confess  that  you  are  talking  arrant  rot." 

283 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

"Nonsense!  I  cannot  help  seeing  things  as  they 
are ;  it  is  a  little  way  I  have.  Life  is  a  succession  of 
losses.  I  am  ready  to  accept  this  melancholy  truism; 
but  my  recent  ones,  including  those  of  energy,  strength, 
wit,  brilliancy,  "looks,  health,  and  last  but  not  least, 
my  hair,  begin  to  count  as  something  irreparable — 
quelle  degringolade,  hein  ?" 

"If  I  did  not  know  you  so  well  I  would  think  that 
you  are  joking,  for,  if  you  will  allow  me  to  say  so,  I  do 
not  recognize  you  at  all  in  this  discouraged,  disheart- 
ened, and  diffident  mood!" 

"I  assure  you  that  I  was  never  more  completely  in 
earnest.  I  trust  that  you  do  not  think  me  capable  of 
fishing  for  compliments,  after  all!" 

"My  dearest  little  girl,  you  are  absurd.  Compliment 
or  no  compliment,  I  will  tell  you  the  truth,  whether  you 
like  it  or  not.  Your  charm  and  magnetism  are  wholly 
unimpaired.  Indeed,  you  have  added  to  them  the  ad- 
ditional fascination  of  temporary  helplessness,  which, 
in  one  as  self-reliant,  independent,  and  courageous  as 
yourself,  is  excessively  winning ;  and  as  to  your  trying 
to  make  any  one  think  that  your  pallor,  your  thin- 
ness (which  makes  your  eyes  as  big  as  saucers),  and 
your  cropped  curls,  rob  you  of  your  looks,  that  is  pre- 
posterous." 

There  was  a  touch  of  grave  sadness  mixed  with  this 
tone  of  gentle  persiflage  which  forbade  my  pursuing 
that  subject,  and  I  thought  to  myself,  with  some  real 
annoyance,  as  I  saw  him  lapse  into  one  of  the  abstracted 
moods  in  which  he  had  indulged  before  his  abrupt  de- 
parture for  Abyssinia: 

"Love's  words  are  weak,  but  not  love's  silences!" 

The  great  wonder-flower  of  romantic  tenderness  was 
still  blossoming  in  his  faithful,  loyal  heart,  and  the 

284 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

old  vague,  sorrowful  feeling  concerning  him  which 
had  come  upon  me  on  the  night  of  his  last  departure 
made  itself  once  more  felt.  His  was  much  too  fine  and 
grand  a  nature  to  waste  his  life  in  a  vain  and  fruit- 
less sentiment  of  that  kind.  I  was  sorry  now,  too,  for 
having  spoken  as  openly  and  recklessly  to  him  as  I 
had  just  done,  and  could  have  bitten  my  tongue  off 
for  having  been  so  unusually  tactless. 

Softly  Jerry  twanged  the  strings  of  his  banjo,  look- 
ing fixedly  at  a  budding  magnolia,  as  if  bent  upon  count- 
ing with  absolute  exactness  every  promise  of  bloom 
nestling  among  its  lustrous  leaves.  At  last  he  said, 
in  a  conversationally  indifferent  way,  but  without  re- 
moving his  gaze  from  the  magnolia: 

"  I  think  that  you  should  not  allow  yourself  to 
be  troubled  by  gloomy  forebodings  at  present;  it  will 
only  retard  your  recovery  and — your  departure."  He 
paused,  then  continued,  coldly  and  baldly,  as  if  mere- 
ly stating  a  bit  of  current  news :  "  And  as  to  the  other 
matter,  you  may  reassure  yourself  completely.  Your 
reign  is  not  over;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  you  are  somewhat 
more  rather  than  less  of  a  charmeuse  than  you  have 
ever  been.  No  man  living  will  agree  with  your  pres- 
ent unflattering  opinion  of  yourself." 

"Oh,  well,  never  mind,"  I  replied,  airily;  "it  is,  after 
all,  not  of  the  smallest  consequence;  what,  however, 
is  of  paramount  importance,  is  for  me  to  find  out  what 
ails  Fred.  Tell  me,  Jerry,  has  Mahmoud  Bey  been  here 
often  during  my  illness?" 

"That  bounder?"  he  replied,  his  mouth  and  eyes 
both  expressing  measureless  contempt. 

"  Yes,  that  bounder !  To  you  I  may  confess  that  he 
has  been  for  a  long  time  past  a  considerable  thorn  in 
my  side.  You  must  see  that  it  would  do  no  good  to  tell 
anybody  else.  There  was  an  unpleasant  incident  last 

285 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

spring,  and  I  traced  what  might  have  developed  into  a 
first-class  villany  —  and  felony  as  well — to  him;  but 
Fred  is  rather  amused  by  the  fellow,  and  pooh-poohed 
my  views  of  the  matter.  It  would  take  too  long  to  tell 
you  about  it  now,  but  I  will  do  so  later  on,  when  there 
is  less  fear  of  our  being  disturbed.  Moreover,  there  is 
another  man  whose  influence  I  dread  for  Fred,  and  that 
is  that  diplomatic  -  financier,  or  financial  diplomatist, 

whichever  you  like  to  call  it — Sir  B s  D n. 

He  hates  Fred,  although  he  flatters  him  most  delicately 
and  cleverly  whenever  he  gets  the  chance." 

"You  are  entirely  right  in  mistrusting  that  one. 
He  is  a  dangerous  scamp,  very  shrewd,  very  clever, 
and  as  unscrupulous  as  they  make  them,  and,  more- 
over, his  ways  of  making  a  fortune  are  a  trifle  more 
than  questionable,  as  you  know.  He  would  have  us 
believe  that  his  dealings  with  the  stock  exchange  are  a 
harmless  little  pastime — a  little  innocent  fad — whereas 
there  is  no  possible  doubt  that  more  than  once  he  spec- 
ulated on  state  secrets  that  had  been  intrusted  to  the 
honor  he  hasn't  got." 

"  Yes,  I  know  he  is  an  ugly  customer,  and  he  will  never 
forgive  Fred  for  having  been  once  the  innocent  con- 
veyer of  a  royal  reproof  and  a  royal  snub  to  him  and  to 
his  precious  wife.  It  was  unfortunate  for  my  poor  lad 
that  such  snubs  are  generally  administered  by  proxy! 
That  man  is  so  mean  that  a  hundred  souls  like  his 
would  rattle  in  a  mustard-seed,  and  I  fear  that  some 
day  or  other  he  will  play  Fred  some  nasty  trick." 

"Does  he  call  here  often?" 

"No,  indeed!     He  knows  that  I  dislike  him,  that 
I  am  not  taken  in  by  his  assumed  gentlemanliness, 
and  I    have    shown    him    plainly  that    his  financial 
jargon  bores  me.     It  is  dotted  with  'bulls/  'bears, 
'ursine  operations/  'realizations/  'tightness/  and  a 

286 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

hundred  other  ridiculous  terms  which  I  neither  relish 
nor  understand." 

i  "  Well,  you  are  not  afraid  that  Fred  should  be  drawn 
into  gambling  on  '  'Change/  are  you?  He  has  a  nice 
income  of  his  own,  and  you,  in  spite  of  all  you  sacrificed 
when  you  married  him,  are  still  richer  than  is  good  for 
you  to  be,  so  where  would  the  incentive  come  in?" 

"  That's  just  it.  Fred  is  a  queer  fellow  at  times.  To 
begin  with,  he  is  annoyed  that  I  should  be  better  off 
than  he  is.  You  see,  there  are  many  who  hinted  pretty 
plainly  that  he  had  made  a  beau  reve  in  more  senses 
than  one  when  he  married  me,  and  it  is  pardonable, 
perhaps,  under  the  circumstances,  that  he  should  re- 
gret not  to  be  the  wealthier  of  the  two.  Who  knows, 
therefore,  whether  he  might  not  be  tempted  by  a  clever 
enemy  of  his  and  mine  to  try  and  increase  his  capital 
by  means  which  people  less  queer  than  myself  con- 
sider perfectly  fair — namely,  by  gambling  in  stocks? 
It  is  improbable,  but,  after  all,  possible.  I  heard  him 
say  once  that  he  had  bought  a  lot  of  mining  shares. 
I  paid  no  attention  to  it  at  the  time,  for  it  was  just 
before  I  was  taken  ill,  and  my  head  was  in  a  wretched 
muddle,  but  during  the  last  few  days  it  has  been  re- 
called to  my  mind  by  finding  a  broker's  letter  address- 
ed to  him  in  the  mail-bag.  I  asked  him  when  handing 
it  to  him  what  he  had  to  do  with  such  people,  but  he 
turned  the  conversation  to  other  topics,  and  I  was  feel- 
ing too  tired  and  rocky  to  carry  the  war  into  his  camp." 

"Hum  ...  !"  muttered  Jerry,  with  a  slight  frown. 
"  This  certainly  seems  to  need  looking  into,  but  I  dread 
for  you  any  form  of  excitement  or  worry  while  you  are 
still  too  weak  to  walk  across  a  room,  or  even  to  stand 
on  your  poor  little  feet.  Confound  everybody  and 
everything!  This  mania  for  gambling  in  mining 
shares  is  such  a  convenient  way  of  ruining  one's  self. 

287 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Why,  the  greatest  cretin  can  lose  or  make  a  fortune  in 
a  week  at  that  game.  He  buys  at,  let  us  say,  a  sov- 
ereign a  share,  and  in  a  few  days  he  may  sell  again 
for  three  or  four  times  the  amount.  When  one  esti- 
mates this  in  thousands  the  result  is  rather  formid- 
able. " 

I  sighed  and  turned  my  attention  to  the  beef-tea 
which  Sahla  brought  at  that  moment,  and  to  some 
thin  bread-and-butter  handed  to  me,  bit  by  bit,  by 
Jerry,  who  evidently  did  not  consider  me  strong  enough 
to  hold  up  a  whole  slice  at  once. 

I  knew  very  little,  technically  speaking,  about 
finance,  but  I  had  an  instinctive  horror  of  financiers 
whether  big  or  small,  and  when  Jerry  had  carried  me 
back  to  my  rooms,  across  the  already  dusky  gardens, 
I  read  long  and  studiously  the  stock-exchange  reports 
of  the  best-informed  sheets,  frowning  and  fidgeting 
over  the  hideous  and  incomprehensible  words  with 
which  they  bristled,  in  my  anxiety  to  find  out  how  the 
mining  shares  I  had  mentioned  to  my  faithful  knight- 
errant  were  rated. 

It  would  have  been  boastful  forme  to  pretend  that 
my  health  and  strength  were  improving;  indeed,  Jer- 
ry had  been  quite  right  in  saying  that  fretting  would 
retard  my  recovery,  and  so  there  was  nothing  for  it  but 
to  severely  repress  any  inclination  to  dwell  upon  the 
future — which  seemed  just  then,  to  say  the  least,  preg- 
nant with  difficulties — and  to  devote  my  whole  atten- 
tion to  following  the  behests  of  my  physicians  with 
military  precision,  swallow  tonics,  restoratives,  nour- 
ishing food — for  which  I  felt  ten  times  my  old  horror — 
and  turn  myself  into  a  mere  thoughtless,  feelingless 
piece  of  machinery. 

Many  weary  days  went  by  thus,  and  very  gradually 
I  became  once  more  able,  with  dogged  determination,  to 

288 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

walk  slowly  and  hesitatingly  about  the  house,  or  along 
half  the  length  of  the  terrace,  with  somebody  in  close 
attendance  to  steady  my  insecure  footsteps.  That 
ghastly  illness  was,  indeed,  followed  by  a  yet  ghastlier 
convalescence,  and  I  noticed  that  my  kind  nurses  and 
my  medical  men  more  than  once  despaired  of  pulling 
me  through  it. 

At  last  I  was  pronounced  well  enough  to  undertake 
in  a  fortnight  or  so — if  great  care  and  prudence  were 
exercised — the  trip  back  to  Europe,  and  my  spirits 
began  to  rise  rapidly  again.  Strange  to  say,  Fred, 
who  had  been  so  magnificently  faithful  in  his  con- 
stant care  of  me  as  long  as  I  was  in  danger,  since  I  had 
been  pronounced  to  be  "doing  better"  had  withdrawn 
almost  entirely  from  the  little  "  corps  of  devoted  order- 
lies," as  I  called  the  group  formed  by  himself,  Jerry, 
and  two  other  admirable  friends — of  whom  one  was  my 

godfather,  F  .  .  .  .  x-T n — and  the  other  my 

old  "chum,"  Prince  H n,  who  had  tended  me 

for  nearly  six  months  with  a  devotion  difficult  to 
describe.  * 

1  puzzled  more  and  more  over  this  strange  defection 
and  made  myself  very  miserable  about  it,  but  yet  I 
tried  to  adhere  to  my  resolve  about  not  fretting, 
and  avoided  talking  to  Fred  about  all  this  until  I  felt 
strong  enough  to  do  so  without  any  exhibition  of 
feminine  weakness,  of  which  I  dreaded  more  than  any- 
thing else  to  render  myself  guilty. 

I  felt  strangely  hurt  by  this  entirely  unexpected  atti- 
tude on  Fred's  part,  for  he  seemed  anxious  to  avoid 
me,  and  especially  any  possibility  of  my  questioning 
him,  had  I  been  minded  to  do  so — all  of  which  was 
a  decided  breach  of  contract,  for  it  had  been  well  under- 
stood between  us  from  the  first  that  we  would  share 
joys  and  sorrows  alike,  as  good  comrades  fighting  life's 
«9  289 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

battles  shoulder  to  shoulder  should  do ;  so  pride  made 
me  leave  him  entirely  free  to  act  as  he  thought  fit,  and 
an  awkward  and  painful  restraint  on  both  sides  was 
the  inevitable  result  of  this  undesirable  state  of  affairs. 

Two  weeks  before  the  date  fixed  for  our  departure  I 
was  lying  on  the  lounge  in  my  dressing-room  one  morn- 
ing, with  Ali-Baba  standing  watch  over  me,  and  oc- 
casionally licking  the  tips  of  my  fingers  to  indicate 
that  he  was  wide  awake  and  ready  to  go  and  fetch  one 
or  all  of  the  servants  if  need  arose,  like  the  sagacious 
and  clever  dog  he  was,  when  suddenly  I  heard  a  car- 
riage stop,  and  immediately  afterwards  Fred's  step, 
first  on  the  veranda  and  then  in  the  central  hall. 
Under  the  new  regime  I  thought  that  he  would  prob- 
ably go  on  to  the  chancellerie,  or  his  own  rooms,  and 
not  come  near  me  until  Jerry  and  my  other  "  orderlies  " 
came  in  to  lunch,  and  my  heart  hardened  against  him. 
I  felt  so  very  weak  yet,  and  so  very  lonely!  Greatly 
to  my  surprise,  however,  he  turned  into  the  corridor 
leading  to  my  side  of  the  house  and  knocked  at  my 
door. 

"Come  in!"  I  said,  without  looking  up  from  the 
pages  of  my  book  or  silencing  Ali-Baba,  who  was 
yapping  a  joyful  welcome  to  the  master  he  now  so  sel- 
dom saw.  Something  in  the  manner  of  his  entrance 
made  me  raise  my  eyes  against  my  will,  and  with  an 
exclamation  of  alarm  I  started  to  my  feet,  for  his  face 
was  pale  and  set,  and  his  whole  bearing  eloquently  ex- 
pressive of  bad  news. 

"What  has  happened?"  1  asked,  feeling  suddenly 
cold  all  over. 

He  groaned,  and,  casting  himself  down  upon  a  chair, 
let  his  head  fall  upon  his  hands. 

Swiftly  I  went  up  to  him,  and,  touching  him  gently 
on  the  shoulder,  begged  him  to  tell  me  what  was  the 

290 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

matter,  but  for  a  few  seconds — which  seemed  remark- 
ably long  to  me — I  could  not  get  him  to  answer  a  word. 
At  last,  when  my  alarm  had  become  almost  unbear- 
able, he  raised  towards  me  a  face  ages  older  than  that 
to  which  I  was  accustomed,  and  said,  in  a  curiously 
broken  voice: 

"Matter!  I  am  ruined!  I  have  lost  every  penny  I 
possessed  in  the  world!" 

"Oh,  Lord,  how  you  frightened  me!"  I  exclaimed, 
sitting  down  rather  abruptly  on  the  arm  of  a  sofa 
opposite  to  him.  "Is  that  all?" 

"All!     What  more  do  you  want?" 

"  Nothing,  nothing ;  this  will  suffice  me  for  the  pres- 
ent," I  said,  with  a  little  laugh — not  very  merry,  nor 
very  genuine,  but  still  a  very  presentable  little  laugh ; 
and  then  I  continued  in  the  same  semi-bantering  tone, 
because  I  divined  that  pity  and  sympathy  would  bring 
about  numerous  undesirable  catastrophes. 

"Assuredly  it  is  a  misfortune,  but  I  do  not  see  that 
you  need  be  so  tragic  about  it.  We  are  not  as  yet,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware,  in  danger  of  starving,  or  even  of 
having  to  work  very  hard  for  our  daily  bread,  so  cheer 
up,  dear  old  boy,  and  tell  me  all  about  it." 

I  pretended  not  to  see  the  incredulous  amazement 
with  which  he  regarded  me,  and,  stretching  my  hand 
towards  a  neighboring  table,  took  a  cigarette — how 
glad  I  was  to  have  resumed  the  use  of  the  soothing 
herb  three  days  before ! — and  began  to  smoke  with  true 
Oriental  impassiveness. 

"For  God's  sake,  Muzzi,  do  you  realize  what  I  just 
told  you?"  he  cried,  rising  and  beginning  to  walk  ner- 
vously to  and  fro. 

"  Why,  yes,  of  course  I  do ;  but  I  cannot  for  the  life 
of  me  understand  why  the  loss  of  your  money — granted 
that  you  have  really  lost  it  all — should  make  you  look 

291 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  act  as  you  do  now.  Plaie  d'  argent  n'est  pas  mor- 
telle  —  and  we  have  plenty  more,  you  knowl" 

"Ah,  yes  —  yours!" 

"Precisely." 

"  Well,  do  you  imagine  that  I  can  calmly  and  cheer- 
fully contemplate  living  henceforth  entirely  on  your 
money?" 

"Tut-tut,  don't  be  foolish!  Perhaps,  after  all,  your 
situation  is  not  as  desperate  as  you  think  ;  and  to  begin 
with,  do  sit  down  and  tell  me,  if  it  be  possible,  how  this 
all  came  about." 

He  sat  down  again,  and  wiped  his  face  with  his 
handkerchief. 

"I  have  been  a  fool!"  he  said,  furiously.  "An  ab- 
surdly confiding  idiot.  I  see  it  now  when  it  is  too 


I  nodded  encouragingly,  but  as  he  relapsed  into 
silence,  staring  in  front  of  him,  like  a  man  who  has 
fallen  down  a  precipice  and  cannot  make  up  his  mind 
whether  he  be  dead  or  alive,  I  threw  away  my  half 
smoked  cigarette  and  again  took  the  floor. 

"I  dare  say  that  you  have  allowed  yourself  to  be 
advised   in  your  financial   ventures  —  since  now  you 
have  joined  the  phalanx  of  money  makers  and  losers  — 
by  people  who  were  only  too  glad  to  give  you  wrong 
tips.     For  instance,  Sir  B  ......  s  D  ......  n,  for  I 

would  swear  that  he  had  a  hand  in  this  silly  business." 

"Who  told  you  this?" 

"Nobody;  but  it  is  easy  enough  to  guess." 

He  groaned  anew,  and  smothered  an  oath  between 
his  clinched  teeth. 

"Look  here,  Fred,"  I  continued,  an  idea  flashing 
upon  me,  "  do  you  owe  anybody  anything,  or  can  you 
completely  cover  the  loss?" 

"N  —  no,  I  do  not  owe  anybody  a  penny,  but  —  " 

292 


A   DOFFED  CORONET 

"  What  I  mean  is,  do  you  need  money  to  save  the — 
the  situation — your  name,  you  know,  from  being  un- 
pleasantly mentioned — anywhere?  I  am  not  versed  in 
finance,  but  I  have  heard  of  people  being — what  is  it 
you  call  it? — posted  on  'Change,  or  something  like  that. 
Is  that  your  case?  Answer  me!" 

"My  poor  girl,  my  poor  little  girl,"  he  murmured, 
with  a  sudden  flash  of  piteous  tenderness,  "that  you 
should  have  to  suffer  this,  too!" 

"  Ah,  so  that  is  what  makes  you  feel  so  badly !  Well 
now,  tell  me  this  instant  how  much  you  need  to  cleai 
yourself,  and  when  you  want  it." 

And  then,  with  eyes  cast  down,  he  told  me  with  man] 
pauses  and  much  hesitation  the  full  extent  of  the  ca- 
lamity. He  had,  it  appeared,  allowed  himself  to  be 
drawn  into  speculating,  with  the  idea  of  augmenting 
his  capital  sufficiently  to  clear  himself  forever  of  the 
imputation  of  having  married  me  partly  for  my  money 
— a  piece  of  gossip  about  which  he  was  absurdly  sen- 
sitive, although,  for  the  matter  of  that,  rumors  of  quite 
a  contrary  nature  were  also  afloat.  Through  a  strange 
concourse  of  unlucky  circumstances,  and  especially  be- 
cause he  was  entirely  ignorant  of  affairs  of  this  kind, 
he  had  suddenly  found  himself  involved  to  a  much 
greater  extent  than  he  had  imagined. 

Horrified,  he  had  tried  to  recoup  himself  by  risking 
yet  larger  sums,  and  some  mining  shares  upon  which 
he  had  built  fantastic  hopes  having  without  the  slight- 
est warning  fallen  to  zero,  owing  to  an  inundation  of 
the  mines,  he  now  remained  insolvent  for  an  exceed- 
ingly large  sum.  Naturally,  also,  as  I  had  surmised, 
Sir  B s  D n  had  been  his  chief  finan- 
cial adviser. 

For  a  few  minutes  I  occupied  myself  with  sowing,  in 
the  furrows  of  remembrance,  the  seeds  of  an  anger — 

293 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

to  call  it  by  a  mild  name — which  would,  I  hoped,  pro- 
duce in  good  time  a  neat  little  harvest  of  unpleasant- 
ness for  that  worthy,  and  I  thought  bitterly  of  the  re- 
mark that  I  had  once  heard  that  discreet  rogue  make 
to  the  effect  that  financiers  well  versed  like  himself  in 
the  business  of  the  stock  exchange  despised  the  "  scran- 
nel" operations  of  amateurs.  Did  he  call  such  differ- 
ences on  settling  day  the  result  of  "  scrannel "  opera- 
tions, I  wondered?  Anyhow,  the  "deal"  was  closed — 
to  use  the  trade  parlance — the  famous  mining  shares 
were  unnegotiable,  and  Fred,  thanks  to  him,  practically 
a  bankrupt.  Assuredly  his  kind  adviser  had  reason 
to  be  satisfied. 

I  lighted  another  cigarette,  pour  me  donner  conte- 
nance,  and  after  a  rapid  mental  calculation  said  to 
that  poor,  broken,  amateur  financier  whose  name  I  bore : 

"Do  not  be  down-hearted,  husband  mine,  you  will 
have  the  money  in  hand  to  settle  your  differences — 
Lor',  what  exquisite  language  this  is !  —  to-morrow 
when  the  banks  open,  for  I  will  cable  my  Viennese  bank- 
ers to  wire  me  the  necessary  sum  at  once,  which  will  give 
you  plenty  of  time,"  and,  stooping  down,  I  kissed  him. 

"You  want  to  pay  this?"  he  cried.  "You  want  to 
cripple  your  fortune — to  throw  the  greater  portion  of  it 
into  this  pit  of  mud  I  have  dug  before  your  feet?" 

"Oh,  look  here,  Fred,  please  don't  talk  nonsense! 
What  can  be  more  natural  than  that  I  should  help  you 
out  of  this  difficulty  ?  Who  has  a  better  right  to  do  so,  I 'd 
like  to  know?  You  really  cannot  very  well  treat  me  as  a 
stranger,  seeing  that  you  married  me.  I  have  always 
considered  myself  as  your  best  friend  and  comrade,  apart 
from  anything  else,  and  I  may  at  least  be  allowed  a 
friend's  privilege.  Just  you  sit  still  while  I  write  my 
despatch,  and  do  not  worry !  I  am,  perchance,  a  trifle 
wealthier  than  you  know,  and  the  payment  of  this  sum 

294 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

will  not  by  any  means  cripple  me  or  my  fortunes.  So 
there!" 

The'se  pages  have  already  recorded  too  many  melo- 
dramatic incidents  for  me  to  dwell  on  the  hours  that 
followed.  Fred  behaved  like  a  trump,  poor  old  boy! 
and  I  was  so  relieved  to  find  that  money  alone  had  been 
at  the  bottom  of  his  recent  changeful  and  incompre- 
hensible moods  that  I  now  felt  almost  light-hearted. 
Of  course,  the  payment  of  this  debt,  which  I  considered 
to  be  a  debt  of  honor,  would  take  a  far  greater  slice  out 
of  my  capital  than  I  cared  to  have  him  know  then,  for 
at  the  time  of  my  marriage  to  him  I  had  had  to  surrender 
a  large  part  of  my  personal  income,  or,  rather,  to  put 
it  baldly,  the  two  hundred  thousand  francs  annual  al- 
lowance made  to  me  by  my  aunt,  the  Duchess  de 

S ,  who  held  a  life  interest  in  the  money  left  to  me 

by  her  husband,  and  who  had  broken  absolutely  with 
me  when  I  had  refused  to  take  her  advice  as  to  my  sec- 
ond matrimonial  venture;  but,  notwithstanding  this, 
even  after  paying  Fred's  debt  I  would  still  control  an  in- 
come which  would  make  it  possible  for  us  to  continue 
life  almost  on  the  same  luxurious  footing  as  heretofore. 

One  resolve  I  took,  however,  and  an  unshakable  one 
it  was,  too.  I  determined  to  pay  back  in  full  what  I  per. 

sonally  owed  of  chagrin  and  misery  to  Sir  B s 

D n,  and  to  any  other  person  who  had  helped 

him  in  that  sorry  job,  for  I  fancied,  somehow,  that  there 
must  be  somebody  else. 

Fred  did  not  appear  at  lunch,  and  as  Jerry  was  obliged 
to  spend  a  portion  of  the  afternoon  at  the  British  Lega- 
tion, I  found  myself  alone  for  several  hours  in  the 
garden  under  the  shelter  of  the  little  tent,  with  a 
book  on  my  lap  which  I  did  not  read.  No  breeze  lifted 
the  fan-shaped  leaves  of  the  palms,  and  the  monoto- 
nous drone  of  some  insects  darting  about  among  the 

295 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

roses  was  the  only  sound  to  be  heard.  With  the  elas- 
ticity inherent  to  my  nature,  the  moment  I  had  real- 
ized the  new  state  of  our  fortunes  my  mental  fibres  had 
automatically  adjusted  themselves  to  it,  and  I  found 
no  very  great  trouble  in  mentally  rearranging  our  lives 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  situation.  Material 
changes  would  be  few,  but  the  material  portion  of  one's 
existence  not  being  the  one  which  is  of  paramount  im- 
portance, there  were  other  alterations  to  attend  to  that 
engrossed  my  attention  more  imperiously. 

The  sun  was  already  off  the  lawns,  and  a  refresh- 
ing breeze  was  just  springing  up  to  dissipate  the  heat 
garnered  during  the  day  under  the  thick  verdure,  and 
swept  gently  along  the  rose-colored  Numidian  marble 
terrace,  lightly  stirring  leaf  and  flower,  when  the  crisp 
noise  of  crushed  gravel  made  me  look  up,  and  there 
before  me  stood  Mahmoud  Bey  in  his  glittering  uniform, 
as  spick  and  span  as  ever,  and  with  a  strangely  am- 
biguous smile  playing  under  his  heavy  mustache. 
A  visit  from  him  was  about  the  last  thing  I  had  ex- 
pected, but  I  found — with  that  pleasure  which  a  con- 
valescent experiences  in  regaining  former  powers — 
no  difficulty  in  assuming  a  perfectly  natural  manner, 
although  my  heart  hammered  uncomfortably  against 
my  ribs,  and  a  little  twitching  of  the  nerves  made  it 
plain  to  me  that  I  was  eager  for  the  fray,  especially  as 
I  perceived  immediately  that  he  also  was  in  the  grip 
of  some  violent  emotion,  although  he  concealed  it  ad- 
mirably under  a  great  show  of  interest  in  my  health. 

"How  charming  it  is  to  find  you  up  and  about/' 
said  he,  drawing  a  camp-stool  forward  and  seating 
himself  close  to  me. 

"What  will  you  have?"  I  asked.  "Tea,  coffee, 
brandy-and-soda?  Coffee,  perhaps!  I  think  that  I 
remember  your  telling  me  once  that  you  like  it  b  la 

296 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Turque.  We  prepare  it  here  just  as  you  do,  only  we 
do  not  make  it  quite  ...  as  ...  strong!" 

These  words,  pronounced  in  a  light,  bantering  tone, 
evidently  made  the  aide-de-camp  aware  that  the  cur- 
tain had  risen  on  the  drama,  for  he  drew  himself  up  at 
once  as  if  placing  himself  on  the  defensive. 

"I  will  take  nothing  just  now,"  he  replied,  with  a 
certain  effort,  as  if  this  simple  statement  was  being 
wrung  from  him.  "  I  have  not  come  to  pay  you  a 
social  call,  my  lady,  but  to  entreat  you  to  listen  to  me 
for  a  few  minutes  patiently,  for  I  have  to  tell  you  some- 
thing— something  of  the  utmost  gravity  and  impor- 
tance!" he  concluded,  moistening  his  dry  lips  with  the 
tip  of  his  tongue. 

"Something  of  importance  to  you?"  I  inquired,  and 
again  the  commonplace  words  seemed  to  fall  momen- 
tously. 

"Something  of  importance  to  us  both,"  he  replied, 
rattling  the  gold  cords  of  his  sword-knot  nervously, 
and  looking  persistently  away  from  me. 

"That  must  certainly  be  interesting,"  I  said,  and 
leaning  back  I  drew  down  a  slender  pepper -tree 
branch  which  overhung  the  open  flap  of  the  tent,  gath- 
ered the  tiny  berries — like  red  buckshot — in  the  hol- 
low of  my  hand,  and  began  to  throw  them  one  by  one 
at  the  gnarled  trunk  of  a  misshapen  and  hunch-backed 
palm-tree  which  reminded  me  somehow  of  Mahmoud. 

"Oh  yes,  I  think  I  may  perhaps  succeed  in  in- 
teresting you  ! "  he  remarked,  with  a  covert  insolence 
which  he  had  never  allowed  himself  as  yet  to  display 
towards  me. 

I  cast  the  rest  of  the  pepper-berries  at  one  throw 
against  the  tree,  and  sat  up  straight. 

"  It  will  be  the  very  first  time  that  you  do  so,  then!"  I 
replied,  "  so  pray  come  to  the  point.  But  I  must  remind 

297 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

you  before  you  begin  that  a  more  deferential  tone  is  de 
rigueur  in  my  presence — and  now  proceed,"  I  concluded, 
with  a  vague  sweep  of  my  left  hand,  indicating  that  I 
was  relinquishing  the  platform  to  him. 

"You  are  mistaken,  madame,"  he  began,  "if  you 
think  that  I  have  come  here — and  carefully  avoided 
being  announced  by  evading  your  boob — in  anything 
but  a  conciliatory  spirit.  Indeed,  I  have  come  to  offer 
you  my  help  at  a  moment  when  you  need  friends  and 
not  foes!" 

"You  astonish  me!  May  I  inquire  to  what  moment 
you  are  alluding?  Personally,  I  am  not  conscious  of 
needing  either  the  help  of  the  one  or  the  interference  of 
the  other.  Besides  which,  I  do  not  think  that,  strictly 
speaking,  you  can  call  yourself  my  friend,  or  for  the 
matter  of  that  my  foe,  because  you  know  a  foe  is 
generally  supposed  to  inspire  fear,  or  at  least  appre- 
hension, which  you  most  emphatically  fail  to  do." 

"  You  are  right,  my  lady,  right  as  ever,"  he  exclaimed, 
with  sudden  passion.  "  I  have  never  been  your  friend, 
for  friendship  between  us  was  always  impossible. 
There  can  live  in  my  soul  but  deepest  hatred,  or  ...  or 
fiercest  love,  where  you  are  concerned.  Let  me  speak; 
let  me  tell  you  at  last  why  I  have  persecuted  you,  why 
I  have  tried  to  place  you  in  a  position  where  you  would 
be  humbled  and  at  my  mercy,  why  now  I  am  here  to 
offer  you  my  help,  my  life,  my  very  heart's  blood.  ..." 

He  had  leaned  nearer  and  nearer  towards  me  until 
his  hot  breath  touched  my  cheek.  Was  the  man  in 
earnest,  or  merely  a  better  comedian  than  I  had  given 
him  credit  for?  With  a  rapid  twist  of  the  wrist  I  un- 
furled a  large  sandal-wood  fan  which  had  been  lying 
on  my  lap  and  flashed  it  between  us,  just  touching  the 
tip  of  his  nose  with  it,  and  causing  him  to  disappear 
in  sudden  eclipse  behind  its  odorous  fret-work. 

298 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Exit  Romeo!"  I  said,  with  a  low  laugh,  and  then 
drawing  back  and  closing  this  novel  weapon  of  del 
fence  with  a  crackling  sound,  I  declaimed:    "Enter 
the  heavy  villain,  poignard  in  hand!" 

I  regret  to  say  that  at  that  instant  Mahmoud  swore 
— an  oath  savoring  more  of  Billingsgate  or  Ratcliff- 
Highway  than  of  the  mysterious  and  poetical  Orient. 
For  that  estimable  Turk  was  an  excellent  linguist. 

"Fie,  Excellency!"  I  said,  still  laughing;  "where 
are  your  manners?" 

"Manners!  Damn  manners!  You  are  enough  to 
drive  a  man  crazy;  but  you  will  not  laugh  so  gayly 
when  you  know  all!" 

"Brrr-rr-rrr!  You  positively  frighten  me!  You  do 
not  really  think,  however,  that  anything  can  be  worse 
than  the  abortive  declaration  I  have  just  been  sub- 
jected to?  Pardon  my  frankness,  but  melodrama  al- 
ways bores  me,  and  I  wish  that  you  would  confine 
yourself  to  your  habitual  r61es — minor  parts,  that  is, 
for  the  leading  one  does  not  particularly  suit  your 
brand  of  talent." 

"You  may  joke,  my  lady,  but  when  you  find  that 
you  have  destroyed  the  only  chance  your  husband  has 
of  saving  himself  from  ruin  you  may  possibly  regret  it." 

"  Ah,  nous  y  voilh  done  ! "  I  said,  clapping  my  hands 
softly.  "The  plot  is  revealed — generous  lover  versus 
vanquished  and  ruined  husband;  heroic  wife  sacri- 
ficing her  honor  to  save  that  of  her  lord!  Superb! 
Simply  superb!  Good  ending  for  a  fifth  act.  Con- 
gratulations, Mahmoud  Bey." 

A  spasm  of  fury  convulsed  his  features,  and  he  fairly 
stamped  his  foot. 

"Do  you  know  that  dishonor  stares  you  and  your 
precious  husband  in  the  face?  Do  you  know  that  he 
has  lost  all  his  money  and  owes  an  enormous  sum  be- 

299 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

sides,  which  he  has  no  means  of  paying?"  he  cried,  in 
a  strained,  high-pitched  voice.  "I  came  here,"  he 
went  on,  "  to  offer  you  my  help,  if  you  will  only  grant 
me  a — a — a  little  pity,  a  little  tenderness  in  return. 
For  you  I  am  ready  to  give  all  I  have.  I  am  richer 
than  people  think,  and  I  can  save  you  yet.  Your  fate 
is  in  my  hands,  your  husband's  name,  his  future — 
everything!" 

"I  understand  that  a  heart  lies  at  my  feet,"  I  replied, 
with  another  amused  laugh;  "but  even  supposing 
that  to  be  true,  there  is  another  point  from  which  to 
consider  the  situation.  One  does  not  carefully  treasure 
the  signed  confession  of  a  person  whom  one  regards 
with — a — a — a  little  pity  and  tenderness.  Incident- 
ally, therefore,  you  would  expect  to  regain  that  in- 
teresting document,  wouldn't  you?  Do  you  think  you 
can  get  it?" 

He  was  about  to  speak,  evidently  in  vehement  de- 
nial, but  I  gave  him  no  opportunity. 

"Allow  me  to  translate  your  proposals  from  stage 
language  to  that  of  fact  as  quickly  as  possible,  so  that  I 
may  be  rid  of  you,"  I  continued.  "  You  offer  me  money 
— stolen  money,  since  it  is  yours — to  save  the  man  you 
yourself  have  helped  to  ruin.  You  are  a  bosom  friend 

of  Sir  B s  D n,  and  you  have  been,  I 

would  swear,  his  ally  throughout  this  financial  cam- 
paign, which,  though  so  disastrous  for  Fred,  I  have 

discovered  has  been  for  D n,  and  doubtless  for 

you,  also,  quite  indecently  remunerative.  Ah,  you 
don't  like  my  way  of  putting  it!"  for  Mahmoud's  ex- 
pression of  exasperation  had  changed  to  one  of  extreme 
discomfort,  and  he  was  shifting  uneasily  in  his  seat. 

"Now  I  have  a  bit  of  advice  to  give  you,"  I  went 
on,  smiling  sweetly  at  him.  "And  that  is,  don't,  my 
dear  Bey,  give  so  much  attention  to  gossip.  Gossip 

300 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

probably  told  you  that  at  the  time  of  my  second  mar- 
riage I  was  obliged  to  sacrifice  my  entire  property.  I  am 
sorry  to  tell  you  that  the  report  is  untrue.  As  it  hap- 
pens, I  am  sufficiently  wealthy  to  pay  all  my  husband's 
debts  'without  turning  a  hair/  as  your  friends  in  trade 
would  put  it.  So  the  bottom  has  dropped  out  of  your 
little  scheme,  and  you  have  proved  yourself  an  ass  as 
well  as  a  scoundrel.  Either  reputation  is  enough  for 
one  man  to  bear,  my  dear  Bey,  and  it  is  quite  deplorable 
that  you  should  so  readily  assume  both." 

My  adversary  by  this  time  presented  a  most  ludi- 
crous picture  of  grotesquely  mingled  emotions — fear,  as- 
tonishment, disgust,  and  disappointment.  I  laughed 
aloud;  not  that  the  humor  of  the  situation  was  very 
apparent  to  me — I  was  too  angry  for  that — but  I  was 
forced  either  to  accept  that  aspect  of  it,  or  transgress 
an  inflexible  principle  of  mine — that  one  must  not  lose 
one's  temper  with  an  inferior.  But  oh !  to  have  been  a 
man  for  five  minutes,  to  have  ceased  playing  Lord 
High  Executioner  to  this  human  mollusc,  to  have  eased 
my  strained  nerves  by  slapping  the  fellow's  face  and 
dismissing  him  with  a  sound  and  hearty  kick! 

Mahmoud,  true  to  his  contemptible  code,  now  tried 
flattery. 

"Ah,  what  a  woman  you  are!"  he  exclaimed,  with 
abject  admiration.  "What  emotion  touches  you? 
Neither  love,  nor  fear,  nor  rage — " 

"Nor  what  Judge  B r  calls  'soft  sawder,' 

you  might  add,"  I  interrupted,  scornfully.  "I  don't 
wonder  you  are  surprised  at  me.  All  you  know  of 
Europeans  has  been  learned  from  the  hundreds  of  social 
wrecks  who  take  refuge  over  here  when  their  own  coun- 
tries are  too  hot  to  hold  them,  pirates  of  society  who 
have  dragged  their  names  through  mud  and  slime, 
and  who  hope  to  blind  their  audience  here  with  the 

301 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

debris  of  their  battered  escutcheons.  What  emotions 
do  you  expect  to  inspire  save  disgust?  You,  who  are 
quite  too  insignificant,  too  contemptible  to  be  even  in- 
teresting. Listen,  you  are  even  respited!  In  a  few 
days  I  am  going  to  Europe  —  not  so  fast,  my  friend, 
pray  do  not  look  so  relieved  until  you  have  heard  me 
out!"  For  Mahmoud's  drooping  attitude  had  disap- 
peared on  the  instant,  and  he  was  all  attention  and 
alert  interest. 

After  a  moment's  pause  I  resumed:  "Do  you  know 
the  Due  d'A t?" 

"The  Due  d'A  ....  t,  on  Rhoda?"  he  replied,  be- 
wildered. "No,  I  do  not  know  him,  but  I  know  his 
secretary.  Why  do  you  ask?" 

"  So  you  know  his  secretary ;  and  when  scamp  num- 
ber one  meets  scamp  number  two — but  it  does  not  mat- 
ter. I  will  tell  you,  however,  what  does.  The  gems 
you  removed  from  the  Collier  de  la  Favorite  are  in  the 
Duke's  possession ;  for  he  bought  them  from  the  mer- 
chant to  whom  you  sold  them." 

"Impossible!" 

"  Oh  no,  quite  possible ;  I  have  seen  them,  and  both 
he  and  I  know  that  they  are  the  identical  ones." 

"Will  he  speak?" 

"  No,  he  won't.  He  is  yet  another  honorable  person- 
age— quite  beyond  your  understanding — who  would 
dislike  very  much  to  turn  informer.  So  he  will  not 
speak  excepting  you  yourself  force  him  to  do  so  by 
persevering  in  the  ways  you  have  trodden  until  now, 
or  if  you  continue  to  attack  my  husband  by  word  of 
mouth  or  otherwise ;  or  else,  again,  if  the  Khedive  dis- 
covers your  removal  of  gems  from  that  or  possibly 
any  other  jewel  belonging  to  him.  By-the-bye,  have 
you  still  got  access  to  his  valuables?" 

"No,"  he  replied,  submissively;  "there  have  been 

302 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

great  changes  at  the  palace  this  summer.  His  High- 
ness has  grown  strangely  suspicious,  and  no  one  but 
himself  or  Prince  Hussein  has  access  to  his  valuables 
and  private  papers." 

I  smiled,  well  pleased  at  finding  that  Tewfik  had 
indeed  taken  my  hint,  and  continued : 

"The  Duke  is  my  friend,  and  I  have  placed  in  his 
hands  a  sealed  envelope  containing  copies  of  all  the 
written  proofs  I  have  of  your  guilt,  and  also  a  state- 
ment of  my  entire  dealings  with  you.  Thus  you  see 
that  my  absence  even  for  several  months  does  not  in- 
dicate that  you  will  not  be  closely  watched,  so  &  bon 
entendeur  salut !  And  now  do  me  the  favor  to  leave 
me  at  once.  I  do  not  think  that  I  can  put  up  with  you 
another  minute,"  and,  rising  abruptly,  I  blew  the  gold 
whistle  hanging  to  my  chatelaine  three  times  shrilly, 
for  I  distinctly  felt  that  if  the  fellow  stood  there  any 
longer  looking  at  me  I  would  do  him  an  injury.  He 
presumably  read  something  of  the  kind  in  my  eyes,  for 
what  little  color  he  had  left  fled  from  his  face,  and  with- 
out awaiting  the  advent  of  the  servant  I  had  summoned 
he  bowed  profoundly  and  departed,  while  I,  sinking 
back  into  my  chair  again,  laughed  silently. 

But  alas  for  whatever  intentions,  good  or  bad,  I 
may  have  had  regarding  him.  Fate  intervened. 

Of  my  last  two  weeks  in  Egypt  I  will  not  speak.  They 
were  not  pleasant  ones,  for  besides  the  temporary  gloom 
which  Fred's  financial  mishap  had  cast  over  him — 
and  which,  of  course,  reacted  upon  me — it  is  always  a 
tedious  job  to  leave,  for  an  indefinite  period,  a  house 
filled  from  top  to  bottom  with  bric-a-brac  and  costly 
furniture,  especially  when  one  is  not  in  good  health, 
and  when  consequently  the  superintending  of  servants 
and  packers  is  an  almost  overwhelming  fatigue.  At 
last  we  were  off,  however,  accompanied  as  far  as  Alex- 

3<>3 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

andria  by  several  faithful  friends,  among  them  poor 
Jerry,  whose  devotion  and  goodness  had  been  past  be- 
lief, and  who  now  looked  so  broken  up  that  it  pained 
me  cruelly  to  say  good-bye  to  him.  We  embarked 
on  one  of  the  Messageries  Maritimes  steamers,  for 
this  time  we  were  going  leisurely  and  by  easy  stages 
to  Brittany,  where  we  intended  to  stay  for  a  few  weeks 
at  my  own  place  on  the  great  cliffs  overlooking  La 
Mer  Sauvage. 

My  mother,  whose  feeling  of  resentment  on  account 
of  my  second  marriage  had  gradually  become  somewhat 
modified,  and  who  would  have  been  ready  to  welcome  a 
reconciliation,  had  sent  us  a  formal  invitation  to  visit 
her  at  my  dear  old  home,  where  she  lived  six  months 
out  of  the  year ;  but  what  I  needed  was  peace,  silence, 
and  repose,  all  of  which  could  not  very  well  be  obtained 
in  the  house  where  she  reigned,  and  which  was  always 
full  of  guests  bent  on  making  of  life  a  continual  pageant. 
I  therefore  thanked  her,  and  accepted  conditionally  to 
come  to  her  at  a  later  date  when  sufficiently  recovered, 
but  not  while  I  was  still  so  much  of  an  invalid  as  to  be  a 
trouble-f@te. 

As  soon  as  the  carriage  reached  the  narrow  roads 
leading  through  the  cork-oak  forest  to  my  dear  old  ivy- 
grown  castle  my  heart  gave  a  great  leap.  I  felt  that 
here  I  would  soon  be  well  and  happy  again.  Above 
our  heads  the  evergreen  branches  met,  letting  the  pale- 
golden  Breton  sun  filter  soft,  warm  rays  upon  the  moss 
and  heather,  the  broom  and  gorse,  with  which  the 
ground  was  covered  as  with  a  royal  mantle.  Snowy 
clematis  and  pink  convolvulus  clothed  the  rough 
trunks  of  the  century-old  trees,  and  bird-songs  were 
heard  everywhere,  while  quite  close  at  hand,  just  be- 
yond the  luxuriant  belt  of  verdure  bordering  the 
road,  the  sound  of  the  sea  against  its  lofty  granite 

3<>4 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

bastions  seemed  the  leitmotif  of  nature's  sweet  har- 
mony. 

Now  and  again  we  drove  past  a  cluster  of  little  cot- 
tages, built  of  rough  stone  and  roofed  with  thatch, 
wherein  blue  irises  and  pink  foxglove  had  taken  root 
and  blossomed  as  in  a  garden.  The  inhabitants  of  these 
poetical  chaumi&res — honest  ones  those,  and  not  gilded 
imitations  like  Madame  S  .  .  .  a's — came  out  to  wel- 
come us,  clad  in  their  picturesque  costumes  of  heavy 
cloth  embroidered  in  multi-colored  silks  and  silver 
thread,  and  surmounted  either  by  the  large,  white- 
winged  coiffe  which  recalls  the  mediaeval  "hennin," 
and  gives  to  the  straight  profiles  and  large,  flax-blue 
eyes  of  our  peasant  women  an  ideal  and  chaste  purity, 
or  by  the  three-cornered  felt  hats,  profusely  decorated 
with  bright  chenille  cords  and  silver  buckles,  worn  by 
the  men  on  fete  days. 

At  last  this  was  home  —  my  only  true  and  real 
home !  How  good  it  felt  to  be  there  again,  surrounded 
by  the  deep-hearted  love  of  my  people,  for  although 
five  years  had  elapsed  since  my  last  visit  to  the  old 

manoir  of  K t,  one  does  not  forget  in  Brittany, 

and  the  time  might  have  been  ten  times  longer.  The 
castle,  a  massive  but  elegantly  shaped  building,  as 
lonely  in  its  situation  as  though  perched  at  the  very 
confines  of  the  world,  is  profusely  mullioned,  machic- 
olated,  and  turreted,  and  stands  in  a  vast  park  fron- 
tiered  on  one  side  by  the  basaltic  cliffs  I  love  so  well, 
and  on  the  other  by  splendid  oak  forests,  and  as  we 
entered  the  cour  d'honneur  I  stretched  out  my  thin 
hands  to  it  all  as  to  a  dear,  kind,  comforting  friend, 
and  breathed  in  deeply  the  sweet,  pungent  smell  of  the 
familiar  flowers,  ripening  fruit,  and  plants  basking  in 
the  sun,  mixed  with  the  glad  fragrance  of  brine  and 
sea-weed,  and  of  the  violet-scented  salt-marshes  which 
«°  305 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

lay  three  miles  farther  up  the  coast  in  a  break  of  the 
cliffs.  In  my  love  for  Brittanj^  I  reached  a  moral  height 
which  I  never  touched  otherwise,  and  in  which  every 
doubt,  every  sorrow,  every  regret  was  swept  away  as 
with  one  strong,  health-giving,  heavenly  breath.  Home 
at  last!  But  for  how  long? 

"  II  est  parti  vent  arriere, 

II  reviendra  en  louvoyant !" 

The  ancient  sailor-song  spoke  truly,  for  I  had  gone 
thence  gay,  happy,  strong,  healthy,  full  of  life,  and  I 
came  back  weak,  ill,  and  down-hearted;  that  is  what 
the  old  song  meant  to  say  in  maritime  parlance.  I  had 
come  back,  indeed,  to  be  healed,  strengthened,  cheered, 
and  made  happy  again. 

How  I  did  sleep  in  my  huge  room  of  panelled  oak 
and  Flemish  tapestries,  that  smelled  of  lavender  and 
pressed  rose-leaves.  And  when  I  awoke  in  the  morning 
in  the  grand  old  bed,  with  its  bleu  de  France  brocade 
hangings  and  its  carved  and  coroneted  canopy,  how 
joyful  I  was  to  hear  the  fresh,  crisp  sound  of  the  waves, 
and  the  thrushes  singing  in  the  blossoming  elder- 
boughs  beneath  my  windows !  All  the  j^oung  life  in 
me  seemed  to  grow  anew,  and  to  become  once  more 
glad  and  free  from  care. 

Many  quiet  and  happy  days  followed  for  me,  during 
which  I  recovered  all  my  vitality,  and  soon  I  was  once 
more  able  to  spend  hours  in  the  saddle,  galloping  over 
the  silvery  sands  at  low  tide,  or  through  the  narrow 
bridle-path  of  the  forest,  and  to  sail  my  boat  amid  the 
great,  black  rocks  of  the  bay — Ar-Men-Du,  as  they  call 
them  in  Bas-Breton — the  navigation  of  my  tiny  vessel 
demanding  my  careful  attention,  but  yet  not  to  the 
point  of  preventing  me  from  enjoying  to  the  uttermost 
the  smooth,  easy,  gliding  motion  over  the  grayish-green 

306 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

water,  where  flocks  of  gulls  and  sea-swallows  dipped 
their  silky  wings  within  a  stone's  throw  of  me. 

Fred,  too,  was  benefited  by  this  purely  contempla- 
tive existence,  far  away  from  everybody  and  everything 
save  the  household,  the  dear  oM  priest — who  had  been 
my  beloved  tutor  and  was  now  the  chaplain  of  the 
manoir — and  the  peasants  and  fisher-folk  who  had 
known  me  since  babyhood  and  loved  me  as  had  I  been 
their  own.  He  was  always  a  charming  companion, 
gay,  light-hearted,  and  full  of  fun,  and  although  he 
had  not  my  passionate  love  for  the  country  in  general 
and  Brittany  in  particular,  yet  he  spent  a  very  happy 
time  on  horseback  or  on  the  sea,  or  else  in  the  vast  li- 
brary, oak-panelled  like  every  other  room  throughout 
the  castle,  and  containing,  besides  hundreds  of  vol- 
umes— not  much  more  recent  that  Diderot — some  rare 
black-letter  records,  parchments,  ancient  manuscripts, 
and  a  collection  of  illuminated  missals  and  "hour- 
books"  of  singular  beauty,  for  he  was  ever  a  bit  of  a 
bookworm. 

But,  alas,  in  November,  Fred  having  been  summoned 
to  London,  I  resigned  myself  to  once  more  leave  the 
dear  old  place,  closing  the  series  of  my  delights  by  a 
long  ride  along  the  shore  to  where  the  most  wonderful 
steeple  in  Brittany — or  in  the  world,  perhaps — raises  its 
weather-worn  cross  towards  the  hazy  sky  on  the  very 
edge  of  a  rocky  precipice — a  marvellous,  lacelike  tower 
of  gray,  lichen-grown  stone,  shooting  higher  and 
higher  up  in  the  air,  and  light  and  carved  &  jour  enough 
to  give  one  vertigo  when  climbing  the  spiral  stairs 
leading  to  the  summit.  Through  the  interstices  of 
the  granite  lace-work  one  sees  the  tossing  sea,  the 
heather-clad  plain,  the  distant  tops  of  the  cork-oaks, 
as  if  one  were  soaring ;  and  frightened  rooks — a  swarm 
of  bugel  -  noz  I — rise  from  their  perches  amid  the  huge 

307 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

bronze  bells,  screeching  and  circling  wildly  round  with 
a  noisy  flapping  of  their  sombre  wings,  which  makes 
one  a  little  dizzy  at  such  an  altitude.  Six  hundred 
years  of  storm  and  rain  has  this  marvellous  steeple 
withstood,  its  grimacing  gargoyles  overhanging  the 
restless  ocean  with  a  sneer  of  defiance  on  their  ugly 
faces,  and  seeming  to  ask  mockingly  of  one  another 
why  they  are  still  there  staring  the  sun  and  the  moon 
in  the  face,  or  watching  the  hurricanes  blow  the  water 
into  froth  at  the  foot  of  their  immutable  gray  tower, 
when  all  else  bearing  human  shape  came  and  went, 
was  born  and  died,  to  be  thrust  away  under  the  brown 
earth  or  to  sleep  an  eternal  sleep  on  a  bed  of  delicately 
tinted  weed  fifty  fathoms  beneath  the  surface  of  that 
endlessly  tossing  sea. 

I  dismounted  at  the  entrance  of  the  cloisters,  and, 
leaving  my  horse  with  the  groom,  walked  slowly  to  the 
very  edge  of  the  cliff  and  gazed  at  the  pale-blue  mirror 
before  me,  which  melted  away  on  the  horizon-line  into 
the  similar  azurine  pallor  of  the  sky,  for,  strange  to 
record,  the  bay  was  lulled  into  an  unusual  drowsy  repose 
on  that  occasion  by  the  splendor  of  the  autumnal  day. 
When  I  turned  round  I  saw  an  old,  old  crone,  bent  and 
gnarled  like  an  evil  fairy,  with  a  hooked  profile  resem- 
bling that  of  an  owl,  and  little,  red-rimmed,  gray  eyes, 
blinking  hen-fashion,  telling  her  beads  on  the  steps  of 
the  gaunt  calvary  to  the  left  of  the  church.  I  stepped 
over  the  short,  salty  grass,  dotted  with  sea-pinks  and 
sea-thistles,  and  bade  her  good-morning. 

"  Jesus,  ma  Doue  I  Jesus,  ma  Dou$  1"  she  croaked. 
"Our  lady  come  back  to  her  own!"  and  noticing  my 
surprise  at  being  recognized,  so  far  from  my  own  place, 
she  broke  out  in  a  torrent  of  Bas-Breton,  for  they  do 
not  speak  Galleuc  (French)  in  those  parts. 

"Ah,  you  look  like  him!"  she  wailed.  "Like  the 

308 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

saint  we  have  lost  —  our  dear,  dear  lord,  a  giant  in 
strength  and  in  goodness,  handsome  as  none  else  ever 
was,  and  with  a  heart  of  gold  and  a  soul  of  crystal, 
riding  his  great,  black  horse  wherever  there  was  a  fine 
deed  to  do.  'Jesus,  ma  Done!' — our  lost  lord,  our  lost 
lord!" 

Tears  sprang  to  my  eyes,  and  I  sat  down  beside  her 
on  the  moss-grown  steps  of  the  cross — it  was  so  long 
since  any  one  had  talked  to  me  of  my  father  1  An  in- 
tense longing  to  stay  forevermore  in  the  place  that  had 
known  him  and  reverenced  his  memory  like  that  of  a 
saint — where  his  preux  Chevalier  d' antan  was  remem- 
bered, as  it  was  meet  that  he  should  be — filled  my  whole 
being.  I  listened  to  the  old  woman's  crooning  voice 
retailing  to  me  the  brave  deeds  and  the  thousand  kind- 
nesses he  had  done,  and  I  gazed,  almost  with  despair, 
at  the  plain  all  golden  with  gorse,  excepting  where  it 
blushed  rosy-red  with  feathery  heather,  at  the  rock- 
girthed  sea  intoning  its  deep-throated  monotonous 
chant,  and  at  last  at  the  antique  church,  itself  a  prayer 
in  stone,  linking  our  paltry  times  to  the  glorious  ages 
that  have  passed  away: 

"  Mon  clocher  est  1'plus  beau  d'la  terre, 

Mon  pays  1'plus  beau  d'alentour; 
Rendez-moi,  ma  bruyere, 
Et  mon  clocher  a  jourl" 

I  rose,  and,  followed  by  the  old  creature  hobbling 
along  on  her  two  sticks,  entered  the  church.  All 
around  the  thick,  gray  walls,  saints  clad  in  the  cos- 
tumes of  distant  centuries  looked  down  upon  us  from 
their  carven  niches  in  the  dark,  tranquil,  incense-laden 
atmosphere.  Beneath  the  pavement,  made  of  enormous 
blocks  of  granite,  knights  and  ladies,  dead  so  long  ago 
that  the  crested  shields  and  crowns  marking  their  rest- 

309 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ing-places  are  worn  flat  by  the  feet  of  the  many  genera- 
tions that  followed  them,  slept  their  last  sleep,  while 
through  the  open,  iron-bound  portals  a  fresh  sea-breeze 
entered  freely,  stirring  the  flowers  and  the  marvellous 
antique  lace  cloth  upon  the  high  altar.  We  were  all 
alone  in  the  dusky  edifice,  and  I  glanced  almost  with 
envy  at  the  bent,  frail  figure  of  the  aged  peasant  woman 
kneeling  at  my  side  and  praying  fervently  with  a  rapt, 
mystical  expression  on  her  toothless,  withered  counte- 
nance, which  almost  beautified  it.  Then  I  left  her  to 
her  silent  contemplation  of  the  great  saints  of  Brittany 
—St.  Gildas,  St.  Thegounec,  St.  Tuginal,  St.  Tugdual, 
St.  Bertrand — and  to  her  long  invocations,  half  Latin, 
half  Bas  -  Breton,  accompanied  en  sourdine  by  the 
"  hou,  houau-hou-hou "  of  the  wind  whistling  through 
the  stone  lace-work  of  the  slender  steeple  piercing  into 
the  calm,  blue  sky. 

My  road  home  followed  for  a  while  the  salt-marshes, 
upon  which  pink  mould  and  emerald-green  mossy 
slime  floated  wherever  the  refuse  water  was  allowed  to 
accumulate  in  the  deep  6tiers,  then  it  skirted  a  bowlder- 
strewn  beach  from  which  the  sea  had  just  retired,  leav- 
ing uncovered  immense  fields  of  brown  ribbon-weed, 
scalloped  and  shirred  like  satin  baldaquins,  and  of 
delicate  pale-green,  rose,  and  amethyst  tinted  grasses 
hanging  like  gigantic  tresses  from  the  rocks.  Night 
was  coming  on,  and  the  four  great  stones,  just  beyond 
low-water  mark,  which  are  supposed  to  be  dedicated 
to  Bugel-du  (the  little  black  man),  leader  of  the  legion 
of  kourrigans  (gnomes)  who  dwell  in  the  caves  near 
by,  assumed  in  the  failing  light  a  singularly  weird 
aspect.  I  loved  those  stones,  and  stopped  my  horse  to 
look  my  fill  at  this  savage  portion  of  the  rugged  coast. 

"  Et  les  Celtes  regrettaient  quatre  pierres  brutes  sous 
un  ciel  pluvieux,  au  fond  d'un  golfe  rempli  d'llots  I" 

310 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Alas,  I  was  a  Celt,  too! 

********* 

********* 
********* 


Galgenhumor,  a  German  word  for  which  there  is  no 
equivalent  or  adequate  translation  in  any  of  the  seven 
or  eight  languages  I  have  the  misfortune  to  speak — or 
in  all  the  others  I  do  not  speak,  for  the  matter  of  that, 
so  far  as  I  know — is  yet  one  of  the  most  expressive  which 
the  human  tongue  can  pronounce,  for  it  means  in  its 
conciseness  a  great  many  things  difficult  to  render 
even  in  a  whole  sentence.  Galgenhumor — the  brave, 
almost  defiant  show  of  spirit  displayed  by  the  poor 
wretch  on  his  way  to  the  gallows ;  the  last  manifestation 
of  a  dying  pride,  a  sinking  courage,  or  merely,  perad- 
venture,  the  supreme  effort  of  quivering  nerves  laid 
bare  and  raw  to  conceal  from  the  general  public  the 
misery  of  a  struggling  soul ;  and  perhaps,  again,  only 
the  gay,  bantering  tone,  the  merry  smile,  the  ever-pres- 
ent joke  used  by  the  well-bred  and  sensitive  worldling 
as  a  brilliant  if  flimsy  armor  behind  which  a  weary, 
momentarily  imbittered  heart  can  fight  its  own  battles, 
desiring  no  help  nor  succor,  and  keeping  secret  the  fact 
that  some  spot  in  its  innermost  and  remotest  corner  is 
lightly  or  sorely  wounded. 

Whatever  Galgenhitmor  may  be,  sufficient  is  it  to 
say  that  I  had  a  very  respectable  dose  of  it  when  on  a 
late  autumn  morning  we  said  good-bye  to  the  old 
memoir,  leaving  it  in  its  solitary  grandeur  closed  and 
lifeless  once  more,  save  for  Monsieur  V Abbe's — now 
Monsieur  le  Cure's — private  apartment,  and  the  quar- 
ters near  the  gardens  where  the  reduced  staff  of  ser 
vants  lived  all  the  year  round — one  of  the  fairest  spots 
on  earth,  deserted  1  We  embarked  at  St.  Malo  for  Eng- 

3" 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

land,  and  during  the  whole  passage  I  felt  that  my 
only  safety  lay  in  laughing,  joking,  and  making 
fun  of  everything — at  least  accomplishing  by  so  doing 
the  praiseworthy  object  of  cheering  Fred,  who  as  he 
neared  his  native  land  was  inclined  to  grow,  as  usual, 
gloomier  and  gloomier!  It  seemed  to  me,  nevertheless, 
that  we  were  tearing  ahead  in  a  cruel,  jeering  haste, 
hard  to  bear,  indeed,  and  I  was  glad  when  the  sea  got 
rough  all  in  a  moment,  a  stiff  breeze  rose,  and  the  little 
steamer  began  to  pitch  and  plunge  and  rear  like  a  vi- 
cious horse,  in  the  teeth  of  an  uncommonly  fresh  nor'- 
easter.  This  sort  of  thing  was  far  more  in  keeping 
with  my  real  mood  than  even  the  convenient  Galgen- 
humor,  for  it  drove  every  one  below  and  left  me  in  un- 
disputed possession  of  the  deck — as  far  as  passengers 
were  concerned — to  think,  and  think,  and  think,  and 
turn  my  eyes  in  undisturbed  solitude  towards  the  fast- 
fading  coast  of  Brittany. 

Ah,  surely  there  was  something  prophetic  in  the  bit- 
terness of  that  parting! 

The  trip  was  not  a  very  long  one,  and  sooner  than 
I  should  have  wished  we  were  again  within  the  realms 
of  that  polished  and  refined  civilization  which  rejoices 
in  muddy  skies,  greasy  pavements,  horrible  noises, 
squalor,  tinsel  -  luxury,  rain,  and  dirt.  A  pleasant 
little  incident  occurred,  however,  at  the  railway  sta- 
tion. We  had  hardly  taken  our  places  in  the  car- 
riage reserved  for  us  and  sent  our  servants  to  theirs, 
where  they  were  at  leisure  to  meditate,  after  the  grum- 
bling manner  of  their  kind,  over  the  pleasures  of  equi- 
noctial storms  and  sea-sickness,  when  a  boy  of  ten  or 
twelve  years  old,  blond  of  locks  and  bright-blue-eyed, 
went  past,  carrying  an  armful  of  illustrated  papers 
and  magazines,  and  crying  his  wares  in  so  angelic, 
pure,  silver-toned  a  voice  that  I  started  to  my  feet  in 

312 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

sheer  rapture  and  beckoned  peremptorily  to  him  to  come 
back.  "Illustrated  London  News,"  sang  the  little 
fellow,  something  like  this : 


/  J1  t  F  f— 0^=*=^ 


II  -  lus  -  trat  -  ed    Lon  -  don       Ne     -     e  -  ews 

"Illustrated  Lon  .  .  .  '  Here  he  placed  his  little, 
ragged  shoe  on  the  carriage-step,  and,  looking  up  at 
me  with  a  cherub's  smile,  held  out  one  or  two  of  the 
papers. 

"Give  them  all!"  I  said,  quickly.  "How  much  for 
the  whole  batch?" 

The  smile  broadened;  amazed  and  incredulous  de- 
light shone  on  the  chubby  pink-and-white  British  face, 
and  when  the  papers  and  magazines  had  been  trans- 
ferred from  the  boy's  arms  to  the  seat  beside  me,  and 
he  had  been  hastily  indemnified  for  their  loss  and  re- 
warded for  his  exquisite  voice  and  handsome  little  face 
with  much  gold,  Fred  burst  out  laughing  as  we  glided 
out  of  the  terminus. 

"Incorrigible!"  he  said,  when  his  merriment  had 
somewhat  subsided.  "You  are  incorrigible;  nothing 
will  ever  alter  you."  A  true  prophet,  that  husband  of 
mine,  for  of  a  truth  nothing  ever  did — more's  the  pity. 

On  we  rushed  through  fertile,  cramped,  verdure-clad 
England,  its  lovely  villages  looking  like  a  succession 
of  highly  ornamental,  luxurious  toys  set  daintily  in  a 
frame  of  emerald  grass  and  brilliant  autumnal  flowers 
for  the  joy  of  the  onlooker ;  but  unhappily,  as  we  neared 
London,  a  dismal,  cold,  disheartening  rain  set  in,  blot- 
ting out  the  charming  landscape,  which  was  such  an 
edifying  contrast  to  my  own  rugged,  romantic,  scantily 

313 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

peopled   Brittany  that   I  could  have  cried  for  sheer 
homesickness ! 

"This  is  getting  quite  unbearable!"  I  exclaimed, 
with  a  desperate  mental  clutch  at  that  invaluable  Gal- 
genhitmor,  which  was  threatening  to  desert  me  for  good 
and  all.  "What  say  you,  0  gallant  Knight  of  the 
Gloomy  Countenance — shall  we  sing  a  Te  Deum  in 
honor  of  Great  Britain  to  enliven  this  weary  progress,  or 
shall  we  immortalize  ourselves  by  pulling  the  danger- 
signal-bell  and  stopping  the  train  in  order  to  complain 
of  this  inhospitable  weather?  But  no!  on  second 
thought,  let  us  prepare  a  pleasing  surprise  for  the 
guard  by  climbing  into  the  hand-luggage  net  overhead 
there  and  playing  hide-and-seek  with  him  when  he 
appears  at  the  next  station." 

I  blush  to  record  that  the  boyish  mischievousness 
inherent  in  my  lord  and  master  now  broke  forth  with  a 
vigor  which  bore  testimony  to  the  originality  of  my 
proposal,  and  impelled  by  that  God-sent  Galgenhumor, 
now  once  more  in  the  ascendant,  I  did  not  scruple 
to  carry  it  into  immediate  execution.  We  swung  our- 
selves into  the  comparatively  broad,  brass-bound  nets, 
where,  thanks  to  youthful  slenderness,  we  managed 
not  only  to  ensconce  ourselves,  but  by  careful  balancing 
actually  to  maintain  our  positions  despite  the  violent 
oscillations  of  the  train.  I  am  bound  to  confess  that 
a  faint  sensation  of  nausea  was  superinduced  by  this 
daring  experiment,  but  what  is  such  a  trifling  discom- 
fort compared  with  the  truly  witty  and  highly  spiced 
pleasantry  we  contemplated? — As  we  clutched  at  the 
precarious  support  of  the  curved  brass  rods  we  looked 
at  each  other  and  indulged  in  uncomplimentary  re- 
marks across  the  carriage  about  our  respective  ap- 
pearances in  this  our  supremely  funny  imitation  of  the 
world-famed  Han-Lon-Lees." 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

At  last  the  train  slackened  its  noisy,  and,  from  that 
lofty  perch,  decidedly  unpleasant  speed,  and  we  ceased 
laughing  and  became  as  quiet  as  frightened  mice,  con- 
gratulating ourselves  upon  the  fact  that  the  failing 
light  of  the  stormy  afternoon  would  greatly  reduce  our 
chances  of  discovery.  Two  minutes  more  and  the  ex- 
press was  brought  to  a  stand-still,  the  inharmonious 
voice  of  the  guard  coming  nearer  and  nearer,  and  his 
demand  for  "tickets,  please"  —  for  this  was  the  last 
stop  before  the  London  terminus — being  borne  to  our 
ears  with  terrifying  and  inexorable  distinctness.  The 
door  of  the  carriage  was  opened,  letting  in  a  bluster  of 
wind  and  rain,  and  then  a  sonorous  oath,  followed  by 
this  remarkably  appropriate  sentence,  made  itself  heard : 

"Where  the  h — 1  have  those  swells  gone  to?"  No- 
body answering  this  very  puzzling  question,  the  non- 
plussed functionary  stood  for  a  moment,  painfully  be- 
wildered, on  the  drenched  foot-board,  then  he  muttered 
something  incoherent  about  "  train  just  starting  .  .  . 
make  inquiries  .  .  .  search  other  carriages  .  .  .  report  to 
authorities  .  . .  ,"  consigned  us  once  more  to  the  hot- 
test regions  he  could  think  of  in  a  hurry,  banged  the 
door,  and  was  gone! 

I  wiped  the  tears  out  of  my  eyes  which  suppressed 
laughter  had  brought  there,  bade  Fred  moderate  his 
own  transports  of  mirth,  and  then,  dizzy  and  a  little 
sore  about  the  ribs,  we  clambered  down,  repaired  the 
disorder  of  our  attire,  and  sat  down  opposite  each 
other  in  preternaturally  solemn  attitudes  to  await  the 
ddnouement.  When,  a  few  moments  later,  the  train 
drew  up  at  Waterloo  station,  the  guard  appeared  ac- 
companied by  half  a  dozen  railroad  officials  and  three 
constables  and  wrenched  open  the  door  with  excited 
haste.  They  peered  in,  craning  their  necks  over  one 
another's  shoulders,  and  stared  at  us  amazed! 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"What  is  the  matter?"  Fred  asked,  with  quiet  and 
somewhat  haughty  surprise.  "Looking  for  an  es- 
caped criminal?" 

The  scene  that  ensued  need  not  be  dwelt  upon,  be- 
cause, like  all  very  good  things,  it  did  not  last  long, 
and,  moreover,  because  it  would  place  the  gullibility 
of  the  British  official  in  too  unfavorable  a  light,  but 
the  energetic  "Well,  I'll  be  damned!"  of  the  unhappy 
guard,  when  charged  by  his  superiors  with  having  been 
indulging  in  strong  waters,  and  his  bewilderment  when 
he  received  a  compensatory  guinea  from  Fred,  together 
with  a  benignant  smile  and  a  caution  to  give  up  drink, 
were  well  worth  the  trouble  we  had  taken. 

Here  I  must  open  a  small  explanatory  parenthesis. 
When  I  married  Fred  I  gave  him  to  understand  that  I 
would  dutifully  follow  him  wherever  the  exigencies  of 
his  career  might  send  him,  were  it  to  Patagonia  or  the 
North  Pole,  but  not  to  the  United  States.  My  actual 
knowledge  of  that  country,  it  should  be  said,  was  of  a 
very  general  nature,  being  confined,  indeed,  to  bare  geog- 
raphy and  a  desultory  collection  of  ill-assorted  facts. 
Moreover,  the  prejudices  which  I  entertained  in  common 
with  many  Europeans,  had  been  intensified  no  less  by 
encounters  with  strange  and  awful  Cook's  tourists  hail- 
ing from  the  States  than  by  the  dismal  reports  of 
furious  diplomats,  who,  in  those  days,  were  sent  to 
Washington  in  punishment  of  their  sins.  From  these 
premisses  my  annoyance  may  be  comprehended  when, 
almost  immediately  on  reaching  London,  Fred  was 
requested  to  visit  several  cities  of  the  American  Union. 
When,  however,  I  had  consulted  my  physicians,  I 
was  inclined  to  forego  whatever  opposition  I  had 
meditated,  for  they  declared  with  touching  and  really 
rare  professional  unanimity  that  there  could  be  no 
question  of  my  going  back  to  Egypt  for  a  very  long 

316 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

time,  or,  indeed,  of  my  sojourning  in  any  tropical 
country  —  the  mischief  done  to  my  constitution  by 
the  burning  African  climate  being  far  greater  than  we 
had  imagined.  They  recommended  a  sea  voyage  and 
a  more  or  less  long  stay  in  a  region  colder  than 
either  Brittany  or  England,  so  I  pocketed  my  prej- 
udices like  a  meritorious  and  unselfish  wife,  and,  on 
condition  that  we  should  under  no  circumstances 
stay  more  than  six  weeks  in  Yankeeland,  prepared, 
not  very  cheerfully,  it  is  true,  to  cross  the  North  At- 
lantic at  the  beginning  of  December.  We  were  not 
obliged  to  hurry  particularly,  and  so  Pater,  with  an  eye 
to  the  doctor's  instructions,  advised  us  instead  of  travel- 
ling, on  an  ocean  greyhound  to  take  passage  on  a  con- 
siderably smaller  and  slower  merchant  vessel  starting 
from  London  and  belonging  to  a  line  owned  by  a  friend 
of  his.  I  was  pleased  at  the  idea,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  comparatively  long  time  we  would  spend  on  the 
water,  but  also  because,  as  that  particular  vessel  was 
not  going  to  carry  any  passengers  at  that  crossing — 
save  the  president  of  the  company,  who  was  going  to 
New  York  on  business — it  would  amount  almost  to  a 
yachting  trip.  So,  one  misty  morning  when  cloudy 
was  the  weather  we  said  once  again  good-bye  to  old 
England,  dropped  down  the  river,  and  turned  south- 
westward  to  face  the  furies  of  the  great  herring-pond 
in  midwinter,  and  a  cruel  winter  at  that ! 

At  the  last  moment  we  were  joined  most  unexpected- 
ly by  my  brother  Bertrand  and  his  valet.  We  found 
out  too  late  that  the  lad,  who  was  then  on  sick-leave 
from  the  navy — having,  strangely  enough,  also  under- 
gone a  severe  attack  of  typhoid  while  on  the  Cochin 
China  station — had,  after  a  difference  of  opinion  with  his 
mother,  taken  the  law  into  his  own  hands,  and,  content- 
ing himself  with  making  his  decision  known  to  her  in 

317 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

writing,  had  come  post-haste  after  us.  My  duty  as  elder 
sister  was  plainly  to  blame  him  severely  for  this  coup 
de  t§te,  but  I  was  so  delighted  to  see  the  boy  again  after 
years  of  almost  total  separation,  that  my  admonitions 
were  of  a  singularly  mild  description,  and  I  accepted 
the  fait-accompli  with  surprising  equanimity.  There 
existed  between  Bertrand  and  myself  a  deep  and  ten- 
der affection,  and  as  it  would  have  been  useless  to  try 
to  send  him  back,  we  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
short  absence  of  the  young  sailor  could  not  be  con- 
sidered as  a  great  calamity,  and  let  matters  go  at  that. 

Late  on  the  afternoon  of  our  departure,  Fred  having 
retired  to  his  state-room — for,  in  spite  of  having  been 
twice  around  the  world,  he  resembled  Admiral  Nelson 
in  that  he  always  suffered  from  sea-sickness  during  the 
first  part  of  the  voyage — Bertrand  and  I,  true  to  our  Bre- 
ton sea-instinct,  went  out  to  get  a  taste  of  the  weather, 
much  to  the  surprise  of  the  captain,  a  tall,  bull-necked, 
beetroot-red-faced  fellow,  and  of  his  officers  standing  on 
the  bridge. 

It  was  intensely  cold,  with  a  feeling  of  snow  in  the 
air ;  the  setting  sun  was  indicated  by  a  paler  stripe  on 
the  western  edge  of  a  sky  of  solid  gray,  and  the  wind 
roared  fiercely  by,  making  conversation  almost  impos- 
sible. Flying  jets  of  spray  clung  to  masts,  funnel,  and 
rigging,  clothing  them  with  a  thin,  silvery  coating  of 
ice,  and  glassing  the  sloping  deck  until  it  began  to  re- 
semble the  side  of  a  glacier.  I  found,  however,  no 
great  difficulty  in  maintaining  my  balance,  thanks  to 
a  very  early  training  in  much  smaller  vessels,  which 
had  made  me  familiar  with  Atlantic  storms ;  and  as  to 
Bertrand,  he,  naturally,  was  in  his  element. 

We  clung  to  the  rail  abreast  the  wheel,  and  drank  in 
the  keen  freshness  of  the  air  with  delight.  It  was  like 
wine  to  us — us  poor  children  of  the  North,  who  had 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

been  so  lately  pent  in  the  scorched  and  breathless  South- 
land— and  we  hailed  the  tigerish  leap  of  each  foam- 
crested  sea,  every  shriek  of  the  boisterous  northwester, 
almost  as  we  would  have  a  glimpse  of  home  itself.  Ah, 
but  it  was  good ! 

Our  quarters  were  extremely  comfortable,  for  not 
only  had  we  two  state-rooms  apiece,  but  the  lady's  salon 
served  me  as  a  sort  of  boudoir.  Our  servants  were 
also  admirably  lodged,  and  the  table  much  better  than 
could  have  been  expected,  especially  as  the  aforesaid 
president — a  mild-mannered,  rather  dense-looking,  slow- 
speaking  man — had  brought  along  two  barrels  of  oys- 
ters, a  large  quantity  of  fruit,  and  many  other  delica- 
cies, which  were  enjoyed  chiefly  by  Bertrand  and  myself, 
the  purveyor  thereof  being  mostly  confined  to  his  own 
cabin.  For  the  matter  of  that,  the  weather  continued 
so  bad  that  besides  us  two  only  my  faithful  Paul, 
who  was  the  happy  possessor  of  a  good  pair  of  sea 
legs,  and  Jim,  my  brother's  valet,  were  constantly  up 
and  about ;  indeed,  my  two  maids  had  to  be  placed  in 
the  charge  of  the  doctor,  so  pitiable  was  their  plight. 

Jim  had  served  in  the  British  navy,  and  with  his 
muscular,  sinewy  frame,  shrewd,  bronzed  face,  and 
clever  way  of  using  his  hands,  looked  a  hundred  times 
more  professional  than  the  captain  himself.  He  had 
seen  a  good  deal  -of  men  and  manners,  and  was  up  to 
every  seafaring  dodge,  a  bright,  well -trained  fellow, 
who  possessed  the  invaluable  quality  of  being  always 
about  when  needed  and  out  of  the  way  when  not. 

Glad  enough  we  were  to  have  him  with  us,  for 
the  crew  and  even  the  officers  on  that  wretched  boat 
were  not  a  reassuring  company.  The  former  was  an 
"all -nation"  gang,  venting  its  feelings  in  six  differ- 
ent languages  with  a  virulence  and  emphasis  which 
gave  one  food  for  doubt  as  to  the  discipline  maintained 

319 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

on  board,  and  the  captain  in  addressing  them  individ- 
ually or  collectively,  made  no  secret  of  the  contempt  in 
which  he  held  each  and  every  one,  while  both  officers 
and  men  drank  with  an  unrestrained  freedom  edifying 
indeed  to  behold. 

On  the  seventh  morning  after  losing  sight  of  land, 
I  came  on  deck  before  Bertrand  had  hoisted  his  lazy 
young  bones  out  of  his  bunk,  and  was  just  about  to 
make  my  way  aft  when  the  following  apostrophe  made 
me  pause  at  the  top  of  the  companion-way  in  order  to 
give  myself  a  fair  chance  of  studying  the  methods 
adopted  to  cheer  and  encourage  his  men  by  our  genial 
commander. 

"  Have  you  been  suckled  on  hen's  milk,  you  coward- 
ly, banshee  -  haunted  carcasses?"  he  roared.  "What 
d'  you  mean  by  fouling  my  decks  with  your  whinings 
and  croakings,  you  white-livered  hounds?  You  are  a 
disgrace  to  the  sea-going  profession;  go  for'ard,  and 
don't  you  dare  to  show  your  filthy  mugs  up  here  until 
you're  told  to  do  so!" 

Here  the  captain,  turning  abruptly  from  his  audience, 
which  the  chart -house  concealed  from  view,  caught 
sight  of  me  and  came  moodily  in  my  direction,  dis- 
missing them  with  a  wave  of  his  hand,  as  if  he  were 
shooing  away  chickens. 

"Sorry,  your  ladyship,"  he  said,  passing  his  fore- 
finger round  the  inside  of  his  coat-collar,  as  if  his  sud- 
denly repressed  rage  were  choking  him;  "but  those 
brutes  are  the  shakiest  lot  I  ever  commanded;  they're 
ready  to  run  like  so  many  sheep  at  the  first  sign  of  dan- 
ger, and  couldn't  be  trusted  to  sail  paper  boats  by  them- 
selves. They  can  take  their  oath,  however,  that  I'll 
dirty  every  one  of  their  tickets  when  I  get  ashore." 

"What  are  they  afraid  of?"  I  asked  of  him. 

"  Oh,  they've  got  hold  of  some  mad  sort  of  yarn  'bout 

320 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

this  packet  being  unlucky,  that's  all.  There's  no 
accounting  for  sailors'  superstitions." 

"Poor  devils!  Ignorance  and  superstition  are  not 
crimes,  captain*  Lord,  what  a  life  for  them  to  live 
through!" 

The  officer  looked  at  me  with  a  mixture  of  displeasure 
and  amazement  in  his  small,  ferret-like  eyes. 

"Don't  you  go  wasting  your  pity,  my  lady.  Hard- 
ships is  just  meat  and  drink  to  them;  those  kind  of 
beasts  are  used  to  it,  and  soft  sawder  would  be  the  ruina- 
tion of  them.  First-class  sailormen  don't  ship  on  a  tub 
like  this;  the  generality  are  asses,  but  not  to  that  ex- 
tent; they  try  for  the  best  berths  first,  but  when  tars 
lack  watchfulness,  sobriety,  and  fitness,  they  drift  to 
such  craft  as  this,  and  cannot  be  expected  to  be  picked 
men.  That's  how  we  come  to  have  a  cheerful  crowd 
of  idiots  like  those.  This  is  a  common,  low-down  vessel 
and  a  common,  low-down  crew,  that's  what  it  is,  and 
if  I  hadn't  a  wife  and  five  young  ones  in  England,  I 
wouldn't  hold  such  a  command  at  any  price." 

This  was  pleasant!  I  glanced  over  the  side  upon 
the  leaden-hued  waters,  and  then  at  the  sky  full  of  livid 
gray,  vapory  clouds,  standing  out  against  a  denser 
background  of  purplish-black.  We  were  rolling  most 
villanously  to  a  steepish  beam  sea,  and  the  crests  of 
the  clamoring  waves  hissed  and  gurgled  like  opening 
sluices.  Less  than  half  a  mile  away  a  dingy  tramp 
steamer  was  driving  heavily  along,  sending  her  clumsy 
bows  into  it  till  the  sea  broke  in  creamy  yeast  against 
her  cat-heads,  and  rose  in  columns  of  foam  half  up  her 
jibs. 

"We're  going  to  have  dirty  weather  with  a  ven- 
geance," remarked  the  captain,  rolling  his  eyes  specu- 
latively  around.  "I  wouldn't  mention  it  to  you  if  I 
didn't  know  that  your  ladyship  is  not  afraid  of  a  bit  of 
si  321 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

a  squall,  but  still  you'd  be  better  below,  my  lady/'  and 
touching  his  cap  he  hurried  away. 

I  smiled.  Assuredly  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 
keep  secret  the  approach  of  the  storm  even  from  the 
veriest  land-lubber,  but  as  a  real  bona-fide  hurricane 
in  mid- Atlantic  was  a  spectacle  I  had  always  been  de- 
sirous to  see,  I  would  not  have  gone  below  for  any 
consideration.  I  reflected,  however,  that  my  present 
attire  was  not  adequate  to  the  situation — for  I  had 
merely  thrown  over  my  rough,  blue  serge  gown  a  fur- 
lined,  hooded  cloak — and  I  was  just  preparing  to  go 
in  search  of  something  more  suitable  when  Jim  ap- 
peared at  my  side,  carrying  on  his  arm  my  oil-skins, 
sou'wester,  and  caban — a  .  long,  heavy,  hooded  coat 
which  always  formed  part  of  my  wardrobe  when  yacht- 
ing in  northern  latitudes. 

"  Please,  my  lady,  I  thought  that  your  ladyship  would 
probably  wish  to  remain  on  deck  as  long  as  possible  to 
see  the  show,  and  so  I  made  free  to  get  these  togs  from 
Herr  Paul,"  he  said,  in  his  quiet,  inobtrusive  way. 
"  And  your  ladyship  can  step  into  the  chart-house  and 
put  them  on  without  troubling  to  crawl  down  the  com- 
panionway,  as  it  isn't  a  pleasant  job  just  now,"  he  con- 
cluded, with  a  wise  nod  of  the  head. 

"  Is  there  anything  you  do  not  think  of?"  I  replied. 
"  You  are  a  veritable  treasure,  Jim. "  The  man  smiled 
all  over  his  square-jawed,  determined  face,  and  pre- 
ceded me  to  the  chart-house,  where  I  effected  a  change 
of  coats,  after  replacing  my  long  skirt  for  a  short  one, 
and  my  little  snow-boots  for  a  pair  of  tall  sea  ones, 
donned  my  oil-skins,  and  tied  my  sou'wester  securely 
on  my  head  over  the  snug  hood  of  that  convenient 
caban.  When  I  reappeared  on  deck  Jim  was  wait- 
ing for  me,  holding  a  couple  of  rope-lengths  on  his 
arm. 

322 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Want  to  lash  me  and  yourself  to  the  mast,  Jim?" 
I  asked,  gravely. 

"  It  may  come  to  that,  my  lady,  it  may  come  to  that!" 
he  answered,  cheerfully,  as  if  the  prospect  of  very  ugly 
weather  was  a  matter  of  rejoicing  to  him. 

At  that  moment  and  as  if  to  confirm  his  prognostica- 
tions, the  ship  took  a  heavy  sea  in  over  the  foc'sle-head, 
solid  masses  of  water  smiting  the  men  on  deck  with  the 
force  of  sledge-hammers  as  they  clawed  their  way  about 
to  the  accompaniment  of  a  most  infernal  clanging  of 
iron  and  whistling  of  cordages.  Thanks  to  Jim's  fore- 
thought and  perfect  familiarity  with  such  oceanic  sur- 
prises I  was  quite  safe,  and  comparatively  well  protect- 
ed, but  the  din  about  us  was  too  great  for  me  to  tell  him 
so  aloud.  At  that  moment,  above  the  roar  of  the  water 
cascading  down  to  the  lower  deck,  rose  the  sharp  com- 
mand of  the  captain,  embellished,  as  usual,  by  language 
which,  under  such  circumstances,  seemed  a  mere  wan- 
ton waste  of  breath. 

"  Watch  on  duty,  go  to  your  posts,  you  damned  hell- 
hounds, and  you,  quartermaster  of  the  watch,  tumble 
up  here  in  double-quick  time!"  Then,  in  a  yet  louder 
tone,  he  yelled,  his  piercing  voice  rending  the  shriek 
of  the  wind  like  a  steel  blade,  "  Keep  your  heads,  you 
swine,  or  by  G — d  I'll  make  you  sorry  for  the  day  you 
were  born!" 

"That  man  sets  my  teeth  on  edge!"  I  cried  to  Jim; 
but  I  do  not  know  whether  my  words  reached  him,  for 
the  storm  was  upon  us  in  good  earnest,  and  truly  its 
clamor  was  appalling.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  men 
kept  their  heads  according  to  orders,  but  they  certainly 
did  not  keep  their  feet,  for  they  began  to  be  bowled  over 
like  nine-pins,  and  I  reflected  that  their  premonitions 
of  evil  might  very  well  come  true  after  all  for  most  of 
them,  since  right  across  the  steamer's  path  blew  such  a 

323 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

hurricane  as  a  ship  has  seldom  lived  through,  hurling 
the  waves  into  a  wild  vortex,  tearing  their  foaming 
crests  ferociously  backward,  piling  them  up  in  pyram- 
idal heaps  and  tumbling  them  in  all  directions.  Truly 
a  welter  of  conflicting  elements  dreadful  to  behold. 
Tossed  like  any  bubble  we  rode  hard  to  sea,  risking  at 
any  moment  to  be  hurled  entirely  out  of  our  course  by 
the  force  of  the  wind.  In  the  midst  of  it  all  Bertrand, 
in  his  gleaming  oil-skins,  appeared  suddenly  at  my 
side.  With  a  quick  shake  of  his  head  towards  the  chart- 
house,  he  asked  me  whether  I  did  not  wish  to  seek  shel- 
ter, but  on  my  giving  him  an  emphatic  denial  in  the 
same  mute  fashion — speech  being  now  quite  out  of  the 
question — he  also  produced  a  rope's  end,  lashed  him- 
self, Jim,  and  me  together  with  a  sailor's  quick  dex- 
terity; and  we  were  thus  enabled  to  remain  for  a  little 
longer  where  we  were. 

The  great,  sinister  voice  of  the  storm  roared  around 
us,  the  sky  was  blacker  than  ever,  and  the  sound  of 
the  tumult  grew  moment  by  moment  more  stupen- 
dous, like  some  furious,  exasperated  howl  of  deep,  re- 
lentless wrath.  The  ship  at  times,  as  if  also  seized 
with  an  overmastering  <rage,  reared  up  and  leaped 
upon  the  onrushing  rollers,  only  to  fall  headlong  like 
a  crippled  bird  into  the  treacherous  valleys  of  mov- 
ing water  hollowed  out  before  her.  It  was  horribly 
oppressive  to  be  down  there  in  those  deep  pits  walled 
in  by  almost  vertical  planes  of  green  water,  which 
threatened  to  close  above  our  heads,  and  one  longed 
to  climb  once  more  to  the  surface.  The  exhausted 
crew,  blinded,  buffeted,  stung  by  the  flying  brine, 
were  trying  with  their  benumbed  hands,  which  were 
sore  and  bleeding,  to  fulfil  their  duty  as  best  they 
might.  Poor  wretches,  it  was  already  almost  more 
than  they  could  accomplish  to  clutch  at  all  the  moving, 

324 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

slimy,  slippery  things  which  they  had  to  handle,  and 
yet  they  had  also  their  work  to  do  aloft,  whence  came 
an  occasional  loud  cry  of  anguish,  testifying  to 
crushed  fingers,  to  nails  wrenched  out  of  the  sock- 
ets, or  to  the  fact  that  a  man  was  seized  with  vertigo  in 
the  wildly  swinging,  ghastly  insecurity  of  the  rigging, 
and  had  to  be  lowered  down  by  his  comrades,  tant  bien 
que  mat,  at  the  end  of  a  rope. 

Twelve  o'clock!  The  hour  to  seek  food  and  shelter, 
if  it  were  possible!  We  managed  to  reach  the  chart- 
room,  to  slide  in  by  a  mere  slit  in  the  door  held  ajar  by 
Jim,  and  to  sit  down  as  best  we  could  on  a  cushioned 
locker,  which  had,  it  seemed,  permanently  adopted  an 
angle  of  forty-five  degrees,  and  where  we  clung  looking 
at  one  another  as  if  we  had  not  met  for  a  long  time. 
Our  lungs  were  filled  with  the  pure,  unbreathed  wind 
which  had  blown  about  us  so  long,  and  a  healthy 
fatigue  made  even  the  precarious  and  problematical 
comforts  of  that  closed  place  attractive.  After  all,  the 
farther  vagaries  of  the  storm  or  the  ship  did  not 
concern  us,  since  we  could  do  nothing  to  prevent 
them,  and  with  the  absolute  insouciance  which  is  one 
of  the  privileges  of  those  familiarized  with  the  sea,  we 
turned  our  thoughts  to  the  unromantic  question  of  food. 
Bertrand  got  up,  struggled  with  the  door,  and,  followed 
by  Jim,  made  his  way  out  to  go  and  advise  Fred  of  our 
whereabouts,  and  also  to  forage  around  for  some  cold 
meat,  bread,  and  whatever  else  one  could  obtain,  for  I 
did  not  care  to  go  below  until  really  obliged  to  do  so. 
Of  course  the  captain  and  his  officers  were  on  the  bridge, 
and  I  had  the  room  all  to  myself.  From  one  of  my 
pockets  I  extracted  my  cigarette-case  and  match-box, 
and,  with  many  ludicrous  contortions  to  maintain  my 
equilibrium,  I  lit  a  cigarette,  in  defiance  of  all  regula- 
tions— which,  however,  had  never  been  enforced  where  I 

325 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

was  concerned.  Thanks  to  a  well-contrived  lashing  of 
all  movable  objects,  the  room  was  perfectly  ship-shape, 
although  a  good  deal  of  salt  water  sloshed  about  the 
floor.  I  waited  patiently  for  half  an  hour  until  my 
scouting  party  came  back  with  a  basket  containing 
some  luncheon,  and  the  news  that  Fred  was  sleeping 
the  sleep  of  the  just  and  Paul  in  attendance  upon 
him.  Completely  reassured,  we  fell  to,  and,  despite  the 
capers  the  ship  was  cutting,  enjoyed  this  little  picnic 
to  the  full,  laughing  and  shouting  at  each  other  and 
making  every  small  mishap  a  pretext  for  laughter. 

Far  from  abating,  the  wind  grew  more  savage  as 
the  afternoon  wore  on.  It  had  a  wrathful,  tearing 
cadence,  a  force  almost  inconceivable,  and  when  night 
began  to  fall  a  regular  blizzard  of  blinding  snow  set  in, 
adding  its  white  terror  to  our  desperate  straits,  and  in- 
creasing the  danger  tenfold,  for  it  rendered  the  work  of 
the  officers  and  crew  almost  insurmountably  difficult. 
Bertrand  and  Jim  agreed  to  "  stand  by "  if  the  worst 
came  to  the  worst  and  an  extra  officer  or  so  was  re- 
quired, and  while  listening  to  their  talk  I  fell  fast 
asleep  on  my  locker,  prevented  from  being  thrown  off 
by  the  backs  of  my  two  companions,  who,  sitting  on 
the  edge  of  it,  formed  a  living  guard-rail  to  my  im- 
provised couch. 

When  I  awoke  it  was  quite  late,  and  the  smoky  cabin- 
lamps  had  been  lighted  and  swung  about  most  dis- 
tressingly at  every  waltzing  motion  of  the  vessel.  Ber- 
trand told  me  that  Fred  had  fallen  asleep  again  after 
lunch,  and  was  as  well  as  might  be  expected,  that  Paul 
was  still  firm  at  his  post,  that  my  women  had  been 
dosed  with  morphine  in  order  to  allay  both  their  sick- 
ness and  their  fears,  and  finally,  that  to  the  best  of  his 
knowledge  there  was  not  a  sober  man  on  board,  ex- 
cepting one  of  the  six  stalwart  ranchmen  who  were  on 

326 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

their  way  back  from  taking  Western  horses  to  the  Eu- 
ropean markets.  From  the  captain,  the  mates,  and 
the  doctor — a  broken-down  Irish  gentleman  who  had 
been  forced  to  give  up  all  idea  of  a  practice  on  shore, 
thanks  to  his  fondness  for  the  whiskey  of  his  native 
isle,  and  had  accepted  this  miserable  berth  sooner 
than  no  berth  at  all  —  down  to  the  stokers,  all  hands 
had  seized  this  opportunity  to  gratify  a  devouring 
thirst.  I  gazed  incredulously  at  my  brother.  Surely 
matters  could  not  be  as  bad  as  that,  for  even  among 
so  undisciplined  a  ship's  company  there  must  be  an 
instinct  of  self-preservation  which  would  prevent  so 
perilous  a  course  of  conduct.  Nevertheless  it  was  just 
as  he  had  said,  and  in  that  pitch-black  night  we  were 
at  the  utter  mercy  of  hurricane  and  drunkards !  There 
was  deep  concern  on  the  faces  of  Bertrand  and  Jim, 
and  so  I  made  as  light  as  possible  of  the  matter  in  order 
to  cheer  them  up  a  bit,  for  it  was  plain  that  their  fears 
were  centred  upon  me.  The  awful  noise  outside  seemed 
to  increase;  there  were  moments  when  nothing  but 
shrill,  whistling  notes  were  heard ;  then  came  a  fero- 
cious paroxysm  of  deep,  cavernous  roars,  followed  by 
the  heavy,  sullen  blows  of  the  waves  against  the  sides 
and  overhead,  that  ran  through  the  whole  ship  as  if 
it  had  been  transformed  into  a  vibrating,  sonorous 
drum  of  gigantic  dimensions. 

Suddenly  the  door  flew  open  and  the  doctor  tumbled 
into  the  room,  landing  on  all-fours  at  my  feet.  Jim  sprang 
to  the  door  and  closed  it  after  a  few  minutes'  fight  with 
the  wind,  which  threatened  to  wrench  it  out  of  his 
hands,  while  Bertrand  picked  up  the  prostrate  medical 
man  and  set  him  on  the  locker  beside  me.  There  could 
be  no  doubt  of  his  condition ;  he  was  exceedingly  drunk, 
and  yet,  with  that  intense  desire  which  survives  in 
people  once  well  bred  to  conceal  this  graceless  condi- 

327 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

tion,  he  made  shift  to  speak  almost  soberly,  and  to  ex- 
press himself  comprehensibly,  if  somewhat  thickly. 

"Man  just  fell  down  into  hold,"  he  said,  in  a  voice 
sufficiently  raised  to  be  audible  above  the  general  tur- 
moil. "  Broke  his  head  open,  deep  scalp  wound,  bleed- 
ing a  lot ...  can't  sew  him  up,  too  shaky  .  .  .  can  you 
come  and  help?" 

In  the  course  of  conversation  with  him  I  had  let  him 
see  that  I  knew  a  little  about  surgery,  and  this  fact, 
magazined  in  some  obscure  corner  of  his  befuddled  brain, 
had  apparently  suggested  itself  to  him  in  the  urgency 
of  the  moment.  I  did  not  hesitate,  for  it  was  easy  to 
see  that  he  was  totally  incapable  of  performing  the 
slightest  operation.  A  little,  even  a  very  little,  skill  in 
such  a  case  was  better,  I  thought,  than  the  bungling 
of  an  intoxicated  man  with  instruments,  especially 
under  such  circumstances;  and  besides,  a  mere  scalp 
wound  would  not  be  very  difficult  to  deal  with,  so  I 
rose  at  once  and  prepared  to  follow  him.  Bertrand  did 
not  seem  to  relish  this,  but  we  had  both  been  brought 
up  in  a  school  which  teaches  that  there  are  certain  duties 
which  cannot  be  shirked,  and  he  therefore  said  nothing. 

We  filed  out,  and  after  numerous  ridiculous  mishaps, 
falls,  and  bumps,  finally  reached  the  top  of  the  ladder 
leading  to  the  part  of  the  hold  where  the  wounded  man 
lay.  Two  sailors,  very  much  the  worse  for  liquor,  were 
lighting  the  way  with  grimy  lanterns,  while  another, 
not  much  better  off  than  his  mates,  had  hold  of  the 
doctor's  arm,  for  fear  of  his  following  his  patient's 
dangerous  example.  It  was  a  case  of  the  blind  lead- 
ing the  blind,  and  I  laughed  in  spite  of  my  own  sorry 
predicament,  for  it  was  no  joke  to  lower  my  skirts  and 
myself  through  the  narrow  'tween -deck  hatch  under 
such  circumstances,  even  with  the  help  of  two  such 
efficient  assistants  as  Bertrand  and  Jim. 

328 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Bad  as  were  matters  on  deck,  they  were  as  nothing 
when  compared  with  what  met  sight,  nose,  and  ears 
below.  From  one  end  to  the  other  the  black  cavern 
stretching  before  us  was  swinging  like  a  monstrous 
pendulum,  continually,  blindly,  furiously,  horribly. 
Bertrand  preceded  me  on  the  ladder,  walking  back- 
ward so  as  to  hold  me.  I  also  descended  backward, 
in  order  to  have  a  firm  grip  with  my  hands,  while  Jim 
went  down  like  a  gymnast  underneath,  moving  direct- 
ly opposite  to  me,  with  the  laudable  intention,  I  sup- 
pose, of  keeping  me  in  countenance.  When  we  reached 
the  bottom  I  breathed  more  freely — not,  however,  from 
the  purity  of  the  atmosphere. 

Truly  the  spectacle  transcended  the  wildest  imagin- 
ings. Three  or  four  inches  of  thick,  filthy  water  swept 
to  and  fro  across  the  floor,  with  all  sorts  of  abominable 
detritus  floating  about  in  it;  the  heavy,  nauseous  air 
was  very  nearly  unbreathable,  and  the  motion  of  the 
ship  in  those  depths  indescribable.  Indeed,  we  were 
at  first  tossed  about  like  beans  boiling  in  a  pan,  bob- 
bing up  and  down  and  from  side  to  side  in  a  totally 
irresponsible  fashion,  until,  growing  more  accustomed 
to  the  darkness,  the  stench,  the  motion,  and  the  deaf  en- 
ing  noise,  we  began  to  gain  more  control  over  our  limbs 
and  wits. 

"Gawd!"  muttered  the  sailor  next  to  me,  holding  his 
swinging  lantern  desperately  with  both  hands.  "  Gawd ! 
if  I  ever  get  a  billet  ashore,  even  as  a  scavenger,  I'll 
never  even  so  much  as  look  at  salt  water  again  1" 

In  the  filthy,  black  water  a  man  lay,  half  undressed, 
upon  a  couple  of  empty,  sodden  sacks;  near  at  hand 
there  were  a  basin,  a  bottle,  and  a  few  evidences  of  sur- 
gical aid  stuck  firmly  in  a  basket  of  that  white  sand 
which  is  used  to  clean  decks,  and  which  prevented 
them  from  falling  or  from  knocking  together  and  break- 

329 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ing.  The  second  sailor  held  his  lantern  over  the  wound- 
ed man,  saying,  between  his  teeth,  "  Verdammt  eng- 
lischer  betrunkener  Schiveinehund  1  How  you  feel,  hein?" 
It  was  charming! 

The  injured  sailor  was  bleeding  profusely  from  a 
contused  and  lacerated  wound,  reaching  from  his  left 
eyebrow,  which  it  severed,  to  the  coronal  suture  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  skull,  and  the  bone  was  bared 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  length  of  the  wound. 
He  was  quite  unconscious,  and  breathing  very  heavily, 
and  after  a  few  minutes'  examination  I  began  to  sus- 
pect that  he  had  suffered  a  fracture  of  the  occipital 
bone  by  contre-coup.  I  said  as  much  to  the  doctor, 
who  looked  at  me  with  dull,  vinous,  uncomprehending 
eyes.  Evidently  his  last  potation  was  momentarily 
having  a  greater  effect  upon  him. 

"Contre-coup,  hum,  contre-coup ,"  he  said,  with  por- 
tentous professional  gravity.  "Occip'tal  bone,  hum, 
ver'  fine  bone,  my  lady — I  mean  exceedly  ushful  shtruct- 
ure";  and  then,  oracularly,  "joinsh  (hie!)  anteriorly 
sphenoid  bone,  lat'rally  petroush  portion  of  temporal. 
Containshs  (hie !)  foramenmagnum,  m'  lady,  foramen- 
magnum,  y'  know!"  he  concluded,  with  an  impressive 
gesture,  as  if  the  surgical  question  were  satisfactorily 
settled. 

Clearly  there  was  little  to  be  expected  from  the  doc- 
tor! So  I  set  to  work  single-handed,  although  some- 
what sick  at  heart,  for  the  injuries  I  now  considered  it 
my  duty  to  try  and  patch  up  were  far  greater  than  I 
had  surmised.  The  doctor's  instruments,  moreover, 
were,  like  the  doctor  himself,  very  much  the  worse  for 
wear,  the  needle-holders  were  missing  from  his  frayed, 
ragged,  and  incomplete  instrument-case,  and  the  needles 
were  deplorably  rusty.  I  cleaned  and  disinfected  them 
as  well  as  I  could,  but  even  with  my  best  efforts  it  was  a 

330 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

sorry  exhibition  of  surgery.  The  shaving  of  the  scalp 
was  nothing  short  of  a  gymnastic  performance,  thanks 
to  the  dizzy  swinging  of  the  ship,  and  the  sailor's  hide 
so  extraordinarily  tough  that  I  thought  I  could  never 
bring  the  job  to  a  conclusion. 

At  last  I  was  through  both  hide  and  operation,  and 
none  too  soon,  for  the  hold  of  that  ship  was  little  short 
of  an  inferno,  and  with  beads  of  perspiration  pouring 
from  my  forehead  like  raindrops,  in  spite  of  the  cold, 
I  stood  up.  Four  sailors  lifted  my  unfortunate  patient 
and  dropped  him  no  less  than  four  times  in  conveying 
him  to  the  foc'sle.  It  was  pitiful! 

The  men's  quarters,  whither  I  accompanied  him, 
still  followed  by  my  "staff,"  and  by  the  broken-down 
gentleman  doctor,  who,  more  broken-down  than  ever, 
was  pouring  into  my  ears  some  further  invaluable  ana- 
tomical facts — was  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  main 
drain,  with  two  feet  of  slimy  water  eddying  around 
and  rolling  about  broken  bottles,  tin  platters,  articles 
of  clothing,  and  open  sea-chests  in  the  foul-smelling 
darkness.  The  storm  had  no  pity  for  this  poor  wretch, 
who  was  pitched  into  his  hammock,  where  he  lay  se- 
cured with  a  rope,  moaning  in  a  ghastly,  gurgling 
fashion.  The  doctor,  in  a  paroxysm  of  misplaced  pro- 
fessional energy,  proposed  to  give  him  something  to 
eat,  and  was  with  difficulty  dissuaded  from  cramming 
into  the  man's  mouth  a  most  pernicious-looking  hunk 
of  bread,  which  he  had  laboriously  fished  from  the 
debris  washing  against  his  unsteady  legs.  Entreat- 
ing Bertrand  to  take  him  away,  I  proceeded  to  extri- 
cate myself  from  the  puzzling  maze  of  hammocks,  full 
and  empty,  hanging  from  the  low  ceiling  and  swing- 
ing violently  to  and  fro,  but  the  doctor's  voice,  raised 
in  loud  protestations,  made  me  pause  in  my  retreat. 

"  Lemme  give  him  breadsh,"  he  begged ;  "  strengthen 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

him  wonderfullesh,  new  meshod,  feed  patients,  lemme 
feed  him!"  When  they  wouldn't  permit  it  he  burst 
into  tears,  and  fought  madly  to  recover  the  disgusting 
loaf  which  Bertrand  had  cast  away  upon  the  waters 
again,  sincerely  hoping,  I  presume,  that  it  would  not 
come  back  to  him  after  many  days ! 

At  this  point  in  the  proceedings  Jim  intervened  by 
quietly  but  masterfully  picking  me  up  in  his  arms  and 
marching  off  with  me,  as  if  I  had  been  a  baby,  saying, 
respectfully  but  firmly,  "That's  quite  enough  fun  for 
to-night,  my  lady,  and  a  little  over." 

I  do  not  think  that  I  will  ever  forget  that  night.  As 
in  most  of  the  stirring  moments  of  my  life,  the  tragic 
was  so  mixed  with  the  ridiculous  that  it  was  difficult  to 
know  whether  to  laugh  or  cry.  Before  seeking  my 
state-room  I  once  more  glanced  out  into  the  storm.  It  had 
stopped  snowing,  and  the  sky  looked  a  vault  of  black- 
ness, filled  with  vast,  dim  shapes,  forming  and  reform- 
ing and  driving  on  in  maddened  haste.  The  sea  was 
a  vague  blackness,  and  the  ship  still  staggered  through 
mountainous  waves  whose  crests  glimmered  whitely 
to  her  lanterns.  With  a  little  shrug  of  the  shoulders 
I  bade  good-night  to  Bertrand  and  to  Jim,  and  at  last 
went  below. 

This  infernal  storm  lasted  four  days  and  nights, 
with  scarcely  any  break,  and  even  on  the  fifth  day  the 
aspect  of  sea  and  sky  was  far  from  reassuring.  We 
had  been  driven  completely  out  of  our  course ;  a  portion 
of  the  rigging  had  been  carried  away,  and,  sheathed 
in  ice  from  main-truck  to  water-line,  the  ship  looked 
much  more  like  a  wreck  than  anything  else.  The 
unfortunate  crew  endured  many  hours  of  toil  and 
much  scientific  cursing  before  even  the  main  deck  was 
somewhat  cleared  up. 

I  had  become  extremely  popular  on  board  since  the 

332 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

night  when  I  had  taken  upon  myself  the  doctor's  func- 
tions, and  I  got  along  extremely  well,  not  alone  with 
that  sorry  lot,  the  "  all-nation  "  crew,  but  was  now  on 
speaking  terms  with  three  of  the  ranchmen,  huge, 
rough,  handsome,  and,  in  their  way,  extremely  cour- 
teous and  chivalrous  fellows,  who  exalted  the  beauties 
of  the  great  Western  plains  to  me  in  language  so 
picturesque  and  vivid  that  I  began  to  long  for  a 
glimpse  of  them. 

It  was,  I  soon  found,  in  a  great  measure  the  cap- 
tain's fault  if  the  men  were  surly  and  difficult  to  man- 
age; and,  indeed,  why  should  they  not  have  resented 
being  treated  as  though  they  were  mere  aliens  on  suf- 
ferance, creatures  to  be  bullied,  brow~beaten,  sworn  at, 
and,  generally  speaking,  handled  like  unruly  beasts? 
Their  days  dragged  wearily,  monotonously  on,  enli- 
vened by  jeers,  which  were  generally  accompanied  and 
emphasized  by  horrible  threats  and  brutal  cuffings,  and 
all  manner  of  scurvy  treatment,  which  found,  it  ap- 
pears, its  excuse  in  the  captain's  freely  expressed  opin- 
ion to  the  effect  that  "  the  percentage  of  foreigners  " — 
he  pronounced  it  furriners — "  in  the  British  mercantile 
service  was  about  as  high  as  he  wanted  to  know  of," 
and  that "  all '  furriners '  were  a  lot  of  filthy  swine,  with 
not  a  single  redeeming  quality  to  recommend  them!" 

In  my  humble  opinion,  however,  many  of  these  poor 
tars,  under  proper  discipline,  might  have  fearlessly  chal- 
lenged comparison  with  any  seafarers  in  the  wide  world, 
for  they  were  not  by  any  means  "  greenies,"  and,  drunk 
or  sober,  they  put  up  an  excellent  fight  for  the  life  of 
the  rotten  old  tub  in  which  they  had  signed. 

As  soon  as  the  weather  had  somewhat  moderated, 
Fred  made  his  appearance  on  deck,  and  we  amused 
ourselves  with  revolver  practice  at  a  beer-bottle  tied  by 
a  long  string  to  a  yard-arm,  and  very  difficult  shooting 

333 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

it  was,  too,  as  this  target  swung  wildly  from  side  to  side 
at  every  lurch  of  the  ship.  We  were  all  good  hands 
with  fire-arms,  but  Fred  beat  us  easily,  for  he  is  a  splen- 
did shot,  and  we  decided  to  present  him  with  a  gold 
beer-bottle  to  attach  to  his  watch-chain,  en  guise  de  prix 
d'honneur,  when  we  reached  New  York. 

The  cold  grew  yet  more  intense  as  we  approached 
the  Newfoundland  banks,  and  we  began  to  grope  our 
way  through  fantastic  wreaths  of  frost  fog,  which  did 
not  permit  of  any  amusements  whatsoever,  for  the 
creeping  blood  was  nearly  frozen  in  our  veins.  The 
ship's  sheathing  of  ice  became  extraordinarily  thick  and 
fantastic  of  design.  In  the  rigging  hung  enormous 
icicles,  the  masts  were  transformed  into  massive  white 
pillars,  and  a  gigantic  scroll-work  incrusted  bows  and 
bulwarks.  To  cap  the  climax,  something  having  hap- 
pened to  the  engines,  for  seven  long  and  ghastly  days 
and  nights  we  crawled  along  under  a  rag  of  sail  until 
the  damage  was  repaired,  pounding  up  and  down,  and 
rolling  from  side  to  side,  while  the  turmoil  of  a  new  and 
terrific  tempest  howled  unceasingly  around  us. 

At  length  the  weather  grew  calmer,  though  still 
horribly  cold,  and  finally,  one  evening,  we  sighted 
Fire  Island  Light,  and  caught  a  first  faint,  elusive, 
shadowy  glimpse  of  the  New  World. 

Little  we  knew  how  fitting  a  prelude  was  that  voyage 
to  the  experiences  that  there  awaited  us  1 


CHAPTER    VIH 

There  were  men  from  Erin  fair  amid  that  patriot  band. 
Why  had  they  come  to   ramp  and   rair  away  from  their  child- 
hood's land? 

The  Dutchman  one  might  see  beside  that  polling  booth, 
Along  with  Dago  and  Chinee,  and  Huns  and  Poles,  forsooth! 

What  sought  they  thus  afar?     A  place  to  get  the  swag, 
Against  our  customs  levy  war  and  have  a  glorious  jag. 
Th'  oppressed  of  all  the  world  we  pity  at  our  ease, 
And  let  them  over  here  be  whirled  to  do  as  they  damn  please  I 

—"The  Pilgrim  Fathers." 

M.   M. 

SLOWLY,  uncouthly,  ponderously  the  steamer  moved 
to  her  pier,  where  her  lamentable  condition  at  once  elicit- 
ed loud  and  pitying  comments  from  the  'longshoremen, 
custom-house  officers,  and  workmen  assembled  there. 

"Been  to  the  North  Pole?"  shouted  a  burly,  blue- 
clad  official,  addressing  our  captain,  who,  quite  sober 
for  once,  and  proportionately  sullen,  was  leaning  against 
the  bridge  railing.  "You've  been  keeping  company 
with  a  blizzard,  to  judge  by  the  looks  of  you!"  and 
without  waiting  for  an  answer  he  bustled  away. 

The  aspect  of  the  city  from  the  wharves  was  dis- 
couraging; gaunt  and  unpicturesque  wooden  sheds, 
squalor,  and  dirt  making  a  fitting  foreground  to  a 
picture  which  sadly  lacked  both  coloring  and  sym- 
metry. My  heart  was  strangely  heavy,  for  this  arrival 
in  the  earliest  hours  of  a  dismally  cold  winter  morning 
was  calculated  to  depress  the  most  buoyant  spirit,  and 

335 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  turned  impatiently  from  the  dingy  pier,  the  hurrying, 
jostling  crowds,  and  the  tall,  ghostly  buildings  in  the 
middle  distance  to  join  Fred  and  Bertrand,  who  were 
superintending  the  hoisting' of  our  luggage  from  the 
hold.  I  was  filled  with  misgivings  as  I  saw  the  in- 
terminable file  of  trunks  which  were  being  heaped 
upon  hand-trucks  for  removal  to  the  custom-house, 
and  anathematized  the  intelligent  friends  who,  before 
our  departure  from  London,  had  sent  us  a  large  and 
elaborate  collection  of  superfine  perfumes,  toilet  articles, 
and  small  conveniences  of  all  kinds  under  the  impres- 
sion that  such  commodities  would  not  be  purchasable 
in  the  savage  wilds  of  New  York!  I  also  began  to 
suspect  that  I  had  been  wrong  to  bring  along  the 
quantity  of  gowns,  wraps,  hats,  and  Heaven  knows 
what  else,  which  would  have  been  necessary  for  a  six 
weeks'  visit  to  Petersburg,  Vienna,  or  London,  and 
that,  between  my  friends'  under-estimation  of  Amer- 
ican possibilities  and  my  over-estimation  of  the  same, 
I  was  hopelessly  encumbered  writh  a  lot  of  useless  ob- 
jects very  annoying  to  drag  after  a  party  like  ours  from 
one  end  of  the  States  to  the  other. 

Making,  however,  contre  fortune  bon  coeur,  I  hastily 
took  leave  of  the  captain  and  the  officers,  of  the  gentle- 
man-doctor— whose  early  potations  inclined  him  to  be 
tearful — of  the  crew  in  toto,  with  a  comprehensive  wave 
of  the  hand,  of  the  ranchmen,  who  raised  their  som- 
breros high  above  their  heads  and  actually  cheered 
me — and  finally  of  the  luckless  president,  who,  white 
as  a  sheet,  red-eyed,  and  shaky,  was  cursing  the  en- 
tire personnel  of  the  boat  with  all  the  vehemence  his 
condition  permitted,  and  swearing  with  weak  but  irre- 
pressible oaths  that  he  meant  to  spend  the  rest  of  his 
days  in  New  York  sooner  than  entrust  himself  once 
more  to  the  mercies  of  one  of  his  own  vessels. 

336 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  am  bound  to  say  that  the  custom-house  officers 
showed  us  marked  courtesy,  and  thus  were  we  able  to 
drive  off  almost  immediately  in  two  awfully  and  won- 
derfully constructed  vehicles,  which,  as  far  as  shape 
was  concerned,  reminded  me  of  the  famous  voitures  du 
sacre,  which,  since  the  crowning  of  Charles  X.,  have 
lain  in  "innocuous  desuetude"  in  the  ex-royal  mews 
of  France's  extinct  monarchs,  and  which  gave  one  the 
impression  of  being  hung  on  hair-trigger  springs,  for 
at  every  step  of  the  meagre  horses  drawing  them  these 
singular  affairs  bounced  up  and  down  in  the  most 
ludicrous  and  disconcerting  fashion.  As  we  painfully 
jogged  along  on  the  worst-paved  of  streets  my  spirits 
flagged  more  and  more,  for  the  spectacle  presented  by 
the  lower  portion  of  the  great  city  shortly  after  its  awak- 
ening was  depressing  beyond  description.  The  nar- 
row, unkept  streets  still  dozed  in  the  icy  mist  rising 
from  the  river,  with  the  air  of  a  drunkard  about  to 
rouse  from  his  stupor.  Vehicles  were  but  few,  but  the 
sidewalks  were  crowded  with  workingmen  and  women, 
who  hurried  on  as  if  on  their  way  to  some  great  con- 
flagration. Everything  looked  sordid  and  offensively 
public,  and  the  weather  did  not  contribute  to  mend 
matters,  for  it  was  one  of  those  slippery,  glistening, 
gray  days  which  make  the  whole  world  infinitely  dreary. 
We  hardly  spoke  as  we  drove  along  Fifth  Avenue,  and 
I  was  glad  indeed  when  we  at  last  stopped  before  the 
Hotel  Windsor. 

The  suite  of  three  bedrooms,  one  bath,  one  dining, 
and  one  sitting  room,  which  was  assigned  to  us,  to- 
gether with  adjoining  accommodation  for  the  servants, 
was  prettily  furnished;  bright  wood  fires  burned  in  the 
open  grates,  and  I  heaved  a  sigh  of  relief  as,  throwing 
off  my  furs,  I  sank  into  the  cushioned  depths  of  a  huge 
arm-chair  in  front  of  the  cheery  blaze. 
83  337 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

A  bath,  a  change  of  clothes,  and  the  feeling  of  hav- 
ing left  behind  for  good  those  trying  days  on  the  ship 
soon  toned  me  up,  and  when  I  joined  my  boys  at  a  small, 
daintily  set  table  within  range  of  the  fire,  I  had  com- 
pletely recovered  my  good-humor,  and  was  quite  ready 
to  look  upon  everything  hopefully.  When  we  ap- 
proached the  end  of  breakfast  Fred  bent  forward  and, 
glancing  towards  the  window,  said,  with  a  smile : 

"  How  well  I  remember  my  first  visit  here !  Dear  me, 
it  must  be  nearly  ten  years  ago!  At  that  time  this 
hotel  was  quite  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  and  the 
park  rather  like  a  wilderness.  Really,  the  place  has 
grown  beyond  belief!"  He  turned  abruptly  towards 
me  and  broke  into  a  laugh.  "I  do  wonder,  Pussy, 
how  you  will  like  the  dreaded  land.  Is  your  parti- 
pris  against  it  still  as  vivacious?" 

"Ah,  that  is  not  fair!"  I  exclaimed.  "I  have  not 
uttered  a  single  grumbling  note  as  yet,  although  our 
d&but  has  not  been,  so  far,  particularly  pleasant." 

"  My  dear  girl,  I  was  only  chaffing ;  you  have  been 
as  good  as  gold,  and  I  can  hardly  believe  that  it  is  you 
in  person  whom  I  have  enticed  to  Yankeeland.  Eh, 
Bertrand,  is  it  not  extraordinary  that  your  sister  should 
have  consented  to  come  at  all?" 

Bertrand  did  not  at  once  reply.  He  twirled  his  tea- 
cup by  the  handle  a  little  while  in  silence,  then  replied, 
with  more  gravity  than  was  his  wont: 

"  Well,  yes ;  but  here  we  are,  for  weal  or  woe,  and  we 
are  bound  to  make  the  best  of  it,  of  course.  That's 
the  way  to  look  at  it." 

"  I  wonder  if  you  are  going  to  be  burdened  with  super- 
stitious forebodings,  Tranet!"  I  said,  lightly.  "Should 
you  get  into  that  sort  of  rut  you  are  done  for." 

The  boy  squirted  some  seltzer-water  into  his  glass 
before  answering. 

338 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Superstitious  forebodings!  What  do  you  mean?" 
he  asked. 

"  Well,  perhaps  I  used  the  wrong  words,  but  you  look 
as  glum  as  an  owl,  and  an  atmosphere  of  depression 
seems  to  hover  about  you.  What's  amiss?" 

Bertrand  flushed.  "By  Gad!"  he  said,  pushing 
away  his  fruit-plate,  and  returning  suddenly  to  his 
usual  merry  way  of  speaking,  "you  are  an  ungrateful 
person.  I  was  merely  worrying  about  you  a  bit,  be- 
cause I  doubt  whether  you  will  like  it  here,  even  for  a 
short  time;  but  rest  easy,  I  am  not  going  to  burden 
my  mind  again  with  misgivings  on  your  account,  so 
put  that  in  your  pipe  and  smoke  it!" 

"I  would  rather  smoke  a  cigarette,  if  your  'lud- 
ship'  will  sufficiently  unbend  to  procure  me  one/'  I 
replied,  demurely. 

Fred  had  risen  from  the  table,  and  was  putting  on 
the  fur-lined  coat  which  Paul  had  just  brought  in, 
Jim  following  with  Bertrand's,  for  they  had  to  go  out 
for  an  hour  or  so  before  luncheon. 

"You  are  not  going  to  mope  while  we  are  gone,  are 
you?"  my  lord  asked,  somewhat  anxiously. 

I  swung  my  chair  round  with  a  laugh.  "Upon  my 
word,"  I  said,  "you  are  a  nice  pair!  What  on  earth 
should  I  mope  for?  You  know  very  well  that  I  am  not  of 
a  moping  turn  of  mind !  Do  have  sense,  my  poor,  dear 
boys.  One  would  think,  seeing  the  way  you  treat  me, 
that  morally  and  physically  I  am  made  of  spun  glass." 

As  soon  as  they  were  gone  I  rose,  and  walking  to 
one  of  the  windows  looked  out.  "  Heavens !"  I  thought ; 
"has  there  ever  existed  anything  to  approach  this  ex- 
hibit of  architecture?  What  a  jumble!  Narrow,  cof- 
fee-complexioned  houses  standing  cheek  by  jowl  with 
magnificent  buildings  copied  from  Viollet-le-Duc,  but 
set  in  a  yard  or  so  of  turf,  instead  of  having  spacious 

339 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

grounds  around  them,  great  white-marble  edifices 
proudly  lording  it  over  ramshackle  wooden  structures 
painted  a  sickly  yellow,  slices  of  every  conceivable 
style  thrown  haphazard  together  like  second  -  rate 
wares  at  a  bargain  sale!  What  eclecticism!"  Here  a 
knock  at  the  door  arrested  me  in  mid-reverie,  and  I 
turned  from  the  contemplation  of  the  avenue  to  con- 
front a  waiter  who  held  a  gigantic  pasteboard  box  in 
his  arms.  He  slammed  it  on  a  side-table  and,  mutter- 
ing something  about  its  just  having  been  left  for  me 
down-stairs,  retired  precipitately,  as  though  there  was 
not  a  single  minute  for  him  to  spare  in  futile  matters  of 
etiquette.  With  some  curiosity  I  opened  the  box,  and 
found  that  it  contained  dozens  of  what  I  later  on  dis- 
covered were  called  "  American  Beauty  roses/'  packed 
in  layers  of  maiden-hair  ferns.  Delightedly  I  lifted 
the  long-stemmed  flowers  from  their  green  bed,  and 
soon  came  upon  a  card  revealing  the  fact  that  our 
arrival  in  New  York  must  already,  with  lightning  and 
unexplainable  rapidity,  have  become  known,  for  be- 
neath the  engraved  name  of  that  charming  woman, 
Mrs.  W.  W.  A  .  .  .  r — now  many  years  dead — the  follow- 
ing line  was  pencilled:  "Welcome  to  a  new  country 
from  an  old  friend/'  This  was  kind  indeed,  and  I 
glanced  around  the  room  for  wherewithal  to  hold  this 
superb  floral  offering;  but  there  was  nothing  of  the 
kind  to  be  seen,  and  I  was  on  the  point  of  ringing 
the  bell  when  I  caught  sight  of  two  peculiarly  shaped 
but  very  handsome  blue-crystal  vases,  placed  carelessly, 
strangely  enough,  on  each  side  of  the  hearth-nig.  I 
lifted  them  to  the  table.  "Oh,  those  Americans!"  I 
muttered  to  myself;  "what  genius  they  have  for  inven- 
tion! Fancy  having  deep  flower -vases  like  that  with 
sloping  edges  to  hold  up  the  stems  of  the  blossoms!" 
and,  quite  charmed  with  this  device,  I  arranged  Mrs. 

34o 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

A  .  .  .  r's  roses  with  elaborate  care  in  the  two  novel  and 
original  receptacles  which  so  tickled  my  fancy,  placing 
them,  when  completed,  side  by  side  upon  the  centre-table 
of  the  sitting-room.  Shortly  afterwards  another  waiter 
entered  to  remove  the  breakfast  things,  and  I  called 
him  to  give  some  instructions.  He  was  a  big,  burly 
fellow,  with  a  round,  bullet  head,  a  broad,  smiling  face, 
lighted  by  a  pair  of  excessively  small  china-blue  eyes, 
innocent  of  lashes,  a  remarkably  diminutive  nose,  turn- 
ing abruptly  and  menacingly  upward,  an  interminable 
upper  lip,  and  no  chin  to  speak  of. 

"  Will  you  be  so  kind  as  to  find  out  if  my  trunks  have 
arrived,  and,  if  so,  will  you  please  see  that  they  are 
brought  up  at  once?" 

The  man  lolled  languidly  back  against  the  side  of 
the  door,  napkin  in  hand,  and  with  a  friendly  nod  of 
his  round  head  delivered  himself  of  these  incompre- 
hensible words: 

"Well,  when  next  I  hoof  it  down-stairs  I'll  give  a 
kick  into  the  office  and  see  about  it.  You  may  be  sure 
I  won't  forget!"  he  concluded,  with  an  air  of  conferring 
a  personal  favor. 

I  stared.  I  did  not,  of  course,  wish  to  set  myself  up 
yet  as  an  infallible  authority  on  American  manners, 
nor,  for  the  matter  of  that,  on  Irish-American  ones — 
for  there  was  no  mistaking  the  accent  and  the  cast  of 
features  of  the  friendly  waiter — but  still  at  first  blush 
I  disapproved  of  this  mode  of  address,  and  was  on  the 
point  of  begging  him  to  explain  himself  more  clearly, 
and,  if  possible,  more  politely,  when  a  look  of  absolute 
amazement  leaped  into  his  eyes,  which  had  wandered 
towards  the  flowers  on  the  table.  A  convulsion  of  merri- 
ment twisted  his  Milesian  countenance,  he  made  a  sudden 
dive  through  the  door,  and  the  sound  of  hasty  footsteps 
and  uproarious  guffaws  retreated  down  the  corridor. 

341 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"What  on  earth  is  the  matter?"  I  said,  aloud,  com- 
pletely nonplussed  by  such  extraordinary  behavior. 
"  Is  the  man  a  lunatic  ?  What  strange  manners,  and, 
dear  me,  what  inconceivable  impudence!" 

Then  and  there  I  decided  to  be  waited  upon  by  the 
hotel  servants  as  little  as  feasible,  and,  summoning 
Paul  and  Jim,  I  charged  them  with  the  entire  service  of 
our  apartments,  whether  at  meal-time  or  any  other,  ex- 
cepting, of  course,  the  making  up  of  the  rooms. 

"How  do  you  like  it  here,  Jim?"  I  asked,  curious  to 
hear  what  he  thought,  for  it  was  sure  to  be  something 
picturesque. 

"Rum  sort  of  a  place,  my  lady!"  he  replied,  simply. 
"The  little  I  'ave  seen  of  it  don't  seem  quite  natural- 
like,  the  people  act  funny,  and  they  do  speak  a  jargon 
I've  'card  nowhere  before,  my  lady !  We've  only  been 
'ere  a  few  hours,  but  it's  not  difficult  to  hunderstand 
that  they  are  rare  ones  for  poking  and  prying  into 
other  folk's  affairs!" 

"Have  they  tried  to  question  you?"  I  exclaimed, 
immensely  amused.  "  Oh,  dear,  how  very  funny !  What 
did  they  say,  Jim?" 

"Well,  my  lady,  the  'ead- waiter  as  came  up  to  get 
the  horder  for  your  ladyship's  breakfast,  a  corpulent, 
well-to-do  sort  of  a  man,  'e  says  to  me,  says  'e,  'And 
where  may  you  be  coming  from?  Your  boss  seems  to 
be  a  rich  man;  is  'e  'ere  for  pleasure  or  on  biz?  And 
are  you  serving  the  dark  un  or  t'other?' 

"'My  master,'  I  says,  says  I,  stiff-like,  in  answer, 
'  is  not  in  the  'abit  of  consulting  me,  nor  of  telling  me  'is 
private  haffairs,  and  if  it's  just  the  same  to  you,  Mr. 
'Ead-waiter,  I'll  trouble  you  to  turn  your  hattention 
to  that  meenyou-card  in  your  'and!'  'You're  a  great 
silly/  says  'e,  laughing;  'I'm  not  going  to  'urt  your 
boss  by  just  only  talking  about  'im.  One  should  think 

342 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

'e  was  a  royal  personage  to  see  the  fuss  you  are  mak- 
ing. Tell  me,  is  it  true  that  the  young  chap  is  a  mar- 
quis? You  can  tell  me  that,  can't  you?' 

" '  I  can,  but  I  won't/  says  I,  again.  '  Maybe  I  don't 
hunderstand  your  system  over  'ere,  but  I  was  told  as 
this  is  a  republic,  and  so  wot  does  it  matter  to  you  'oo's 
a  marquis  and  'oo  ain't?' " 

"What  did  he  say  then?"  I  queried,  gleefully. 
.  Jim  smiled  significantly.  "  'E  didn't  say  much 
more,  my  lady — to  me,  that  is.  'E  didn't  look  as  if  'e 
knew  which  hend  'e  stood  on,  and  hafter  hattempting 
to  tackle  Herr  Paul — but  that,  o'  course,  was  no  go — 
'e  left  the  room  sort  of  crestfallen." 

Just  then  Fred  and  Bertrand  entered  briskly,  rub- 
bing their  hands  and  complaining  of  the  cold. 

"Look,  Fred,"  I  cried,  coming  towards  him,  "look 
at  these  roses;  it's  a  variety  I've  never  seen  before." 

Fred  glanced  in  the  direction  indicated,  an  expres- 
sion of  extreme  astonishment  overspreading  his  face ; 
then  he  suddenly  burst  into  a  roar  of  laughter. 

"Look,  Bertrand,  look!"  he  gasped. 

Bertrand  was  immediately  seized  with  similar  par- 
oxysms, and  presently  both  subsided  feebly,  side  by 
side,  upon  a  sofa,  while  I  stood  before  them  glancing 
from  one  to  the  other  with  all  the  resentment  of  one  who 
fails  to  comprehend  anything  of  the  joke,  except  that 
it  in  some  way  is  at  one's  own  expense. 

Now  it  is  one  of  my  weaknesses  that  I  do  not  like  to 
be  laughed  at,  so  when  they  were  nearing  the  stage  of 
reminiscent  grins  and  chuckles  I  asked,  with  some  as- 
perity, to  have  this  delightful  jest  explained  to  me. 

"  C-C-Certainly,  my  d-d-dear,"  responded  Fred,  wip- 
ing his  streaming  eyes.  "Your  flower-vases  are  .  .  . 
Oh,  dear,  dear!  ...  a  bit  odd,  that's  all!" 

"What's   wrong   with   them?    They   are   the  most 

343 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

convenient  I  have  ever  seen.  Those  broad,  sloping 
edges  are — " 

Fred  exhibited  dangerous  symptoms  of  relapse. 
"Sloping  edges!  0  Lord!  Why,  they're  cuspidors  1" 

"Cus— what?" 

"Well,  if  you  will  have  it — spittoons!" 

"  Spit-t-o-o-n-s !     What  on  earth—' ' 

"  Crachoirs!     Don't  you  understand?" 

Yes,  at  last  I  understood ;  but  the  humor  of  the  situ- 
ation did  not  strike  me  just  then.  1  vaguely  recol- 
lected having  heard  of  crachoirs,  to  be  sure,  but  had 
never  seen  any,  and  fairly  snatching  my  roses  out  of 
those  too-convenient  receptacles,  I  made  for  the  door, 
a  little  offended. 

"Come  back  here,"  cried  Fred,  as  I  was  disappearing 
into  the  next  room  with  my  fragrant  burden.  "  Please 
come  back.  I've  got  a  letter  for  you  which  I  took  from 
a  much-gilded  flunkey  as  we  were  coming  in.  It  should 
have  been  delivered  with  the  roses." 

"Open  it,  then,  and  see  what  it  is,"  I  said,  pausing 
inside  the  door. 

He  did  so  and  found  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  W.  A  .  .  .  r 
were  sending  us  their  opera-box  that  night,  together 
with  their  compliments  and  regrets  that  previous  en- 
gagements prevented  them  from  giving  themselves 
the  pleasure  of  calling  on  us  at  once,  or  of  coming  with 
us  that  evening  to  the  Metropolitan  Opera-House. 

"Do  you  feel  like  going,"  asked  Fred,  "or  will  you 
be  too  tired?" 

"Tired?  Nonsense!  Why  should  I  be  tired?  I  slept 
like  a  top  last  night,  and  if  I  can  only  get  hold  of  rny 
trunks  I  will  be  very  glad  to  go." 

"Want  to  dazzle  Uncle  Sam?"  he  said,  laughing. 

"Going  to  try  to,"  I  called  back,  at  last  disappear- 
ing. A  few  moments  afterwards  Paul  knocked  at  my 

344 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

door,  and  delivered  a  message  to  the  effect  that  if  I 
wished  it  Fred  and  Bertrand  were  ready  for  a  walk 
with  me  down  the  avenue,  and  within  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  we  were  marching  towards  Union  Square.  The 
sun  was  now  shining  brightly,  and  its  cheerful  rays 
made  the  broad  thoroughfare  look  far  better  than  it 
had  done  earlier  in  the  day.  We  strolled  into  Tiffany's, 
where  Mr.  C  .  .  k,  the  manager,  took  us  all  round  and 
showed  us  the  beautiful  things  in  the  place.  It  was 
then  that  for  the  first  time  I  saw  a  Mexican  opal — those 
wonderful  tinted  globes  of  shifting  light,  so  different 
from  the  milky,  iridescent  Hungarian  gems — and  had 
it  not  been  for  my  ridiculously  superstitious  dread  of 
these  supposedly  ill-fated  stones,  I  would  have  invested 
in  a  goodly  number  of  them. 

When  we  came  back  to  the  hotel  for  luncheon,  we 
found  a  batch  of  invitations  for  dinners,  dances,  and 
theatre  -  parties,  which  would  occupy  many  days  at 
several  per  diem,  if  we  meant  to  accept  them  all. 

"Well,  this  is  something  like  it!  Talk  of  hospital- 
ity!" exclaimed  Bertrand.  "It  looks  as  though  we 
were  going  to  have  a  merry  time  of  it,  after  all!" 

"That's  nothing  yet,"  replied  Fred.  "You  have 
no  idea  to  what  extent  Americans  carry  that  virtue. 
Truly,  they  are  the  most  hospitable  people  in  the  world." 

Just  then  we  were  informed  that  the  Archbishop  of 
New  York  was  down-stairs  asking  to  see  us.  As  Fred 
had  only  sent  him  an  hour  or  so  before  the  letters 
of  introduction  which  when  in  England  he  had 
received  from  Rome,  such  empressement  was  the  height 
of  courtesy,  and  I  told  the  servant  to  show  him  up 
immediately.  Intense  was  my  surprise  when,  instead 
of  the  purple  -  robed  prelate  whom  I  had  expected  to 
see,  a  strangely  youthful  -  looking  gentleman  attired 
in  very  much  the  same  way  as  Protestant  clergymen 

345 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

in  Europe — save  for  the  heavy  gold  chain  about  his 
neck  and  the  narrow  strip  of  episcopal  violet  showing 
beneath  his  round  collar — was  ushered  into  the  room. 
This  democratic  simplicity  was  the  first  real  shock 
which  I  had  received  in  the  Land  of  the  Free,  but  the 
courtly  manner  and  charming  personality  of  the  Arch- 
bishop soon  made  me  forget  it,  and  we  spent  a  delight- 
ful hour  talking  of  mutual  friends  in  Rome,  Paris, 
London,  and  even  Vienna,  for  His  Grace  had  been 
quite  a  traveller.  It  would  have  been  difficult  for  any 
one  to  be  more  interesting  and  entertaining  than  this 
remarkably  young  and  witty  Prince  of  the  Church, 
who  had  just  enough  of  the  Irish  strain  in  him  to  make 
him  a  most  brilliant  and  amusing  conversationalist. 
From  the  very  first  we  were  all  strongly  attracted  to 
him,  though  we  little  tnought  how  loyal,  kind,  and 
devoted  a  friend  he  was  to  be. 

Hardly  had  he  left  us  when  an  old  acquaintance  of 

Fred's,  Mr.  J.  B.  P ,  was  announced,  and  also 

proved  to  be  a  very  charming  and  interesting  person. 
We  asked  him  to  dine  with  us  that  night,  but  with  a 
rather  pathetic  little  smile  he  refused,  saying  that  he 
did  not  like  to  leave  his  little  girl  at  home  alone  with 
servants,  for  her  mother  (whom  Fred  afterwards  in- 
formed me  considered  herself  the  greatest  amateur 
actress  of  the  civilized  world)  was  dining  out  with  some 
friends  who  were  taking  her  to  the  opera  afterwards. 

Several  more  people  called  in  the  course  of  the  after- 
noon, so  that  I  barely  had  time  before  dinner  to  get 
into  my  war-paint.  Fred  seemed  very  anxious  that  I 
should  pay  special  attention  to  my  toilet,  and  so,  to 
please  him,  I  donned  a  white  velvet,  long-trained  four- 
reau,  edged  with  a  ripple  of  fresh  white  lilac  and  steph- 
anotis,  and  a  tiara,  collar,  and  stomacher  of  green 
sapphires,  black  pearls,  and  diamonds,  also  taking 

346 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

with  me,  instead  of  the  hackneyed  fan,  a  large  cluster 
of  white  lilac  and  stephanotis  held  together  by  a  huge 
salamander  of  variously  colored  diamonds,  while  as  a 
wrap  I  threw  about  me  a  long  mantle  of  cloth  of  silver, 
lined  and  bordered  with  Russian  sable. 

When  we  entered  the  A  .  .  .  r  box  the  house  was 
hushed,  for  one  of  the  greatest  singers  of  the  age  was 
holding  the  vast  audience  under  the  spell  of  her  match- 
less voice.  When  the  curtain  fell  another  old  friend  of 
Fred's — Mr.  V  ....  z  —  joined  us,  and  having  been  pre- 
sented to  me,  took  a  vacant  chair  at  my  side.  After 
the  first  compliments  had  been  exchanged  I  picked  up 
my  opera  -  glasses  and  looked  around,  not,  however, 
on  that  account  losing  a  word  of  the  running  fire  of 
comment  dealing  with  tne  gorgeously  apparelled  occu- 
pants of  the  boxes  and  stalls,  indulged  in  by  Fred  and 
his  friend. 

"Isn't  that  my  old  flame,  Maria  P  .....?"  began 
my  lord,  indicating  a  remarkabty  pretty  woman  with 
dark  hair  and  beautiful,  bright -brown  eyes,  which, 
together  with  a  disdainful  little  curl  of  the  lips,  betrayed 
a  tendency  to  sarcasm  and  even  cynicism.  "She  was 
the  wittiest  and  cleverest  girl  I  met  when  over  here  last, 
a  truly  sparkling  being,  but  so  quick  to  see  the  ridicu- 
lous side  of  everything  that  most  men  were  afraid  of 
her,  and  in  consequence  she  was  far  less  entouree  than 
many  less  beautiful  and  fascinating  girls." 

"Ah,  yes,"  replied  Mr.  V  ....  z;  "but  she's  married 
now,  and  to  the  very  last  man  whom  you  would  have 
imagined  she  would  have  chosen.  He's  pretty  heavy 
cake,  a  Scotchman,  absolutely  devoid  of  humor,  excru- 
ciatingly dull,  and  so  insanely  jealous  of  his  wife  that 
he  will  not  even  allow  her  to  dance,  which  is  a  great 
pity,  for  she  used  to  be  no  end  of  a  good  waltzer." 

"That's  the  usual  fate  of  coquettes,"  commented 
347 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Fred,  sententiously.  "They  generally  meet  their 
fate  in  husbands  who  are  their  absolute  antithesis  in 
every  respect." 

"Yes;  if  I  had  not  known  her  wilfulness  and  inde- 
pendence of  character  I  should  have  thought  that  hers 
was  purely  a  mariage  de  convenance  arranged  by  her 
family,  to  whom  such  a  husband  must  be  singularly 
congenial." 

"As  I  recall  them,"  replied  Fred,  "her  people  carried 
their  respect  for  les  convenances  to  a  really  trying  limit, 
and  the  atmosphere  of  their  house  was  a  trifle  depress- 
ing, the  only  relief  from  its  dulness  being  pretty  Maria 
herself.  I  always  particularly  remember,"  he  went 
on,  turning  to  me,  "  the  family  prayers  when  I  stayed 
with  them  in  the  country.  They  used  to  take  place 
immediately  before  breakfast,  the  entire  staff  of  ser- 
vants trooping  into  the  dining-room,  and  kneeling,  ac- 
cording to  orders,  with  their  faces  to  the  wall,  while  the 
family  and  guests,  as  being  composed  of  superior  clay, 
addressed  their  devotions  to  the  Creator  kneeling  with 
theirs  towards  the  breakfast-table,  upon  which  the  big, 
old-fashioned  silver  urn  hummed  a  pious  rumbling 
accompaniment  to  the  monotonous  drone  emitted  by 
the  head  of  the  house.  One  could,  moreover,  hardly 
call  these  prayers  supplications,  for  they  sounded  like 
peremptory  instructions  which  the  paterfamilias  ad- 
dressed to  Heaven!  The  funniest  part  of  it  all  was 
that  the  Swiss  governess  used  to  kneel  sideways,  neither 
facing  the  wall  nor  yet  the  breakfast -table,  but  infusing 
into  the  proud  humility  of  her  attitude  a  suggestion  of 
both  positions." 

"Dear  me,"  I  said,  meditatively,  "I  would  not  have 
thought  that  class  distinctions  were  so  clearly  defined 
over  here." 

"  I  beg  your  pardon.  The  feeling  of  caste  is,  on  the 

348 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

contrary,  far  more  pronounced  in  this  country  than 
in  Europe.  There  is  mighty  little  democratic  spirit 
on  this  side  of  the  water!  Don't  you  see,  in  Europe 
the  differences  of  rank  are  so  well  denned  that  there  is 
no  danger  of  their  ever  being  forgotten,  while  here  there 
are  none  art  all,  and  the  classes  are  always,  so  to  speak, 
on  the  defensive,  as  if  fearing  to  lose  a  tithe  of  the  con- 
sideration due  to  the  position  they  hold  above  the 
masses." 

"  Who  is  that  pretty,  affected  woman  over  there,"  I 
inquired,  "to  whom  that  Spanish-looking  man  seems 
so  devoted?" 

"  Why,  that  is  the  wife  of  poor  J.  B.  P ,  who 

called  on  us  this  afternoon.  I  don't  quite  agree  with 
you  about  her  prettiness,  though ;  her  features  are  too 
sharp,  and  she  is  too  slight  and  devoid  of  figure.  She  is 
a  Southerner,  I  believe,  and  P himself  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  family  of  which  I  was  just  speaking." 

"  She  does  not  get  on  at  all  well  with  her  husband's 

people,"  chimed  in  Fred's  friend.  "  Indeed,  old  P 

greatly  disapproved  of  his  son's  choice,  and  tried  by 
every  possible  means  to  thwart  it.  It  is  greatly  her 
fault,  too,  if  she  has  not  won  a  place  in  their  regard. 
She  is  intensely  ambitious,  literally  eaten  up  with 
vanity,  and  never  so  happy  as  when  posing  and  post- 
uring behind  the  footlights  of  some  drawing-room 
stage,  which  naturally  is  gall  and  wormwood  to  her 
husband's  straitlaced  parents,  for  there  are  a  couple  of 
bishops  in  the  family,  and  the  whole  crowd  regard  all 
matters  theatrical  with  holy  horror." 

"Isnt  that  man  with. her  A.  Th.  R  .  .  .  ,  the  only 
American  member  of  the  Paris  Jockey  Club?"  asked 
Fred.  "I  think  I  remember  meeting  him  there." 

"  Yes,  he  also  distinguishes  himself  by  being  her  cav- 
alliere-servente,  and  by  constantly  dinning  in  her  ears 

349 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

that  she  is  far  too  clever  and  brilliant  for  the  family 
into  which  she  has  married,  and  that  they  are  endeavor- 
ing to  make  her  as  dull  as  themselves  by  keeping  her 
in  the  background;  he  has  -done  more  than  any  one 
else  to  make  her  dissatisfied  with  her  lot.  If  ever  that 
menage  goes  to  smash  a  large  share  of  the  responsi- 
bility will  rest  on  his  shoulders.  One  can,  however, 
be  quite  assured  that  there  is  nothing  serious  between 
them,  for,  unscrupulous  as  he  is  where  women  are  con- 
cerned, yet  she  is  so  cold-bloodedly  selfish  and  so  devoid 
of  heart  that  nobody  can,  for  one  moment,  imagine  her 
sacrificing  her  social  position  for  the  sake  of  a  man, 
or  for  anything  else  save  the  gratification  of  her  in- 
ordinate vanity! 

"His  story,  by  the  way,  is  a  strange  one,"  he  con- 
tinued. "  Up  to  the  age  of  fourteen  he  was  invariably 
dressed  as  a  girl.  His  parents  were  divorced,  and 
the  courts  assigned  the  child  to  the  father,  but  the 
mother  refused  to  surrender  him,  and  so  it  came  about 
that  his  entire  boyhood  was  spent  in  flight,  by  means  of 
steam-yachts,  special  trains,  and  fast  horses,  from  the 
agents  of  his  father  and  from  those  of  the  law.  More- 
over, his  mother,  to  whom  he  was  devoted,  insisted 
upon  his  passing  himself  off  as  a  girl  in  order  to  put 
his  pursuers  off  the  track." 

At  that  moment  the  curtain  rose,  and  those  male 
chatterboxes  were  forced  to  relapse  into  silence;  but 
so  strong  is  the  force  of  example  that  as  soon  as  it  tell 
again  I  myself  became  the  offender,  exclaiming: 

"  Why,  that  stout,  oddly  dressed  old  lady  over  there 

must  be  my  dear  old  friend,  Mrs.  John  B ! 

Dear  me,  how  like  her  it  is  to  wear  those  outrageously 
glace,  one-button  gloves — and  apple-green  at  that — with 
a  low,  sleeveless  dress  of  royal  purple!  She  and  her 
husband  are  the  best-hearted  people  I  ever  met,  but 

35« 


they  are  certainly  eccentric  to  an  almost  incredible 
degree.  Do  you  know  them?"  (This  to  Fred's  friend.) 

"Indeed,  I  do." 

"My  father/'  interposed  Fred,  "is  awfully  fond  of 
them.     He  is  never  tired  of  talking  about  them,  and 

has  often  related    to  me  how,   when   Mr.  B 

occupied  the  United  States  Legation  at  Paris  under 
the  Empire,  the  Emperor  one  day  sent  him  the  Im- 
perial box  at  the  opera  —  an  exceptional  honor,  of 
course,  and  only  accorded  because  of  his  representing 
a  great  and  friendly  Power.  Neither  he  nor  his  wife 
felt  like  going  to  the  opera  that  night,  so,  with  the 
bonte  de  coeur  which  distinguishes  them,  they  sent 
their  servants  instead,  and,  to  the  intense  amazement 
of  the  brilliant  audience,  when  the  door  of  the  Imperial 
box  was  thrown  open  there  appeared,  instead  of  Their 
Majesties,  or  some  members  of  the  Bonaparte  family, 
the  maids,  the  butler,  the  footman,  the  chef,  and 
the  negro  coachman  of  the  American  Envoy!  The 

B s,  however,  were  so  universally  popular  and 

so  sincerely  liked  for  their  unaffected  and  simple  kind- 
ness of  heart  and  ever-present  generosity,  that,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  no  offence  was  taken,  either  at  the 
Tuileries  or  anywhere  else,  and  the  whole  affair  passed 
off  as  a  huge  joke,  which  nobody  appreciated  or  en- 
joyed more  keenly  than  did  the  Emperor  himself.  But 
he  never  again  placed  his  opera-box  at  the  disposal  of 

the  American  Legation !    Dear  old  Mrs.  B !    She 

never  seemed  to  be  able  to  realize,  after  the  close  of  her 
husband's  term  of  office,  that  she  was  no  longer  en- 
titled to  rank  as  an  Ambassadress,  and  at  Berlin  she 

used  constantly  to  fall  foul  of  old  E deR , 

the  Grand-Master  of  the  Ceremonies,  owing  to  her  dis- 
inclination to  yield  the  pas  at  Court  entertainments  to 
Mrs.  F  . . . ,  the  wife  of  the  American  Charge"  d'Affaires." 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

"Why,  there  is  Mrs.  F  .  .  .  ,"  I  said.  "You  had  bet- 
ter go  and  speak  to  her,  Fred.  She  is  such  a  charm- 
ing woman.  I  wonder  if  she  is  still  as  wildly  enthu- 
siastic about  Wagner  as  she  used  to  be  when  she  was  a 
member  of  the  music-mad  coterie  organized  by  Count- 
ess S x,  otherwise  La  Princesse  Trompette, 

and  who  is  now  married  to  my  good  friend,  Count 
W n." 

"It  is  really  a  shame  that  F  .  .  .  should  have 
left  the  American  diplomatic  service,"  broke  in  Fred, 
"  for  he  possessed  a  thorough  training,  and  knew  all 
the  ins  and  outs  of  the  European  grand  monde.  His 
parents,  too,  were  delightful  people.  Indeed,  his 
mother,  whom  I  used  to  know  very  well  at  Washington, 
was  the  ideal  of  an  American  great  lady,  her  man- 
ners, breeding,  kindly  dignity,  and  entire  freedom 
from  all  affectation  and  pose  stamping  her  as  a  person- 
age wherever  she  went." 

"Oh,  go  on,  Fred;  go  and  say  good-evening  to  her 
now!  You  are  tiresome  with  your  reminiscences! 
Don't  you  think  he  has  become  dreadfully  prosy?" 

Mr.  V ....  z  laughed,  and  Fred,  shaking  a  threaten- 
ing finger  at  me,  left  the  box. 

"Is  this  your  first  visit  to  America,  Marquis?"  asked 
our  new  acquaintance  of  Bertrand,  who  had  been 
spending  his  time,  opera-glass  in  hand,  looking  at  the 
pretty  girls  all  around  the  house. 

"Yes,  it  is,  and  I—" 

"Oh,"  I  interrupted,  brusquely,  "but  we  are  quite 
en  pays  de  connaissance !  Yonder  is  old  mother 

S !  She  is  a  joy  forever,  just  as  florid  and  fussy 

and  animated  as  of  yore.  She  always  reminds  me 
of  that  antique  English  institution,  Maria,  Marchioness 

of  A y,  not  in  appearance,  of  course,  but  in 

speech  and  manner,  for  she  has  just  the  same  racy 

352 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

way  of  talking  about  people  and  things,  of  calling  a 
spade  a  spade,  and  of  interlarding  her  words  with  pict- 
uresque expletives.  I  met  Mrs.  S at  Carlsbad, 

three  years  ago,  and  took  a  great  liking  to  her." 

"What  marchioness  does  she  remind  you  of?" 

"Maria  Marchioness!  The  queerest  old  lady  in 
England.  Swears  like  a  trooper,  you  know.  The 
last  time  I  saw  her  it  was  at  Covent  Garden,  and  we 
were  all  waiting  for  our  carriages.  The  Prince  was 
standing  immediately  in  front  of  her,  but,  nevertheless, 
when  the  footman  did  not  run  fast  enough  for  hers, 
she  apostrophized  him  in  a  fashion  that  doubled  every 
one  up,  appealing  to  the  Divinity  by  no  means  in 
prayer,  and  mentioning  the  hottest  of  places  with  a 
freedom  and  force  which  could  not  have  been  matched ! 
That  unfortunate  footman's  maternal  ancestress,  too, 
if  she  was  to  be  believed,  was  a  singularly  questionable 

character.  Ah !  there  is  Fred  in  Mrs.  S 's  box 

now,  shaking  hands  and  laughing.  I  wonder  what 
she  is  telling  him!" 

In  a  few  minutes  Fred  returned,  still  laughing. 

"  Mrs.  S is  going  to  call  on  you  to-morrow," 

he  said.  "She  wants  us  to  dine  with  her  on  Wednes- 
day. She  is  quite  unchanged  in  looks,  and  still  fairly 
bubbling  with  fun.  Who  would  think  that  her  daughter 
was  so  exceedingly  handsome  and  dignified  that  she 
was  the  rage  of  a  London  season?  She  was  one  of  the 
first  American  girls  to  marry  abroad,  you  know." 

"Whom  did  she  marry?"  asked  Bertrand. 

"  D ,  of  the  Guards.  I  remember  her  well 

before  her  marriage,  when  she  got  herself  pretty 
severely  blamed  for  going  everywhere  without  her 
mother,  of  whom  she  was  a  bit  ashamed,  as  she  was 
also  of  her  honest,  hotel-keeping  father's  memory. 
Isn't  it  curious,"  )>e  added,  turning  to  his  friend,  "that 
a*  353 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

so  many  American  belles  who  have  married  abroad 
have  become  the  mothers  of  twins?  I  could  cite  at 
least  a  dozen  international  marriages  which  have  been 
blessed  with  double  surprises  of  this  kind!  It's  odd, 

isn't  it?  Mother  S was  raving  to  me  just  now 

about  her  twin  grandchildren." 

Again  the  curtain  rose,  and  we  had  to  forego  any  of 
the  further  interesting  details  which  Fred,  whom  I  had 
never  seen  so  loquacious,  was  evidently  going  to  im- 
part to  us,  and  I  amused  myself  with  gazing  at  a 
couple  who  had  just  entered  a  box  only  a  short  dis- 
tance from  ours.  The  man  was  clean-shaven,  with 
good  features,  while  his  companion  had  not  much  to 
recommend  her,  save  a  rather  imperious  fashion  of 
holding  her  head  and  as  many  jewels  as  a  Hindoo 
idol  festooned  about  her  person. 

When  we  were  at  liberty  to  resume  our  rather  un- 
charitable conversation,  I  asked  of  Mr.  V  ....  z  who 
they  were. 

"Oh,  they  are  people  who  have  come  to  the  front 
since  your  husband  was  here  last.  Do  you  remember, 
old  man,"  he  continued,  touching  him  lightly  on  the 
shoulder,  "how  unmercifully  he  and  his  brothers  used 
to  be  snubbed,  not  on  their  own  account,  to  be  sure, 
but  because  of  the  intense  unpopularity  of  their  father 
and  grandfather?" 

"Yes,"  replied  Fred  ;  "I'll  never  forget  the  day  when 
on  coming  up  from  Washington  to  New  York  in  Colonel 

T S 's  private  car,  which  he  had 

placed  at  my  disposal,  these  young  V s, 

whose  car  occupied  the  end  of  the  train,  sent  to  ask 
permission  to  pass  through  mine  in  order  to  join  some 
friends  forward.  I  thought  that  you  fellows  were 
pretty  harsh  when  you  implored  me  to  refuse  so  small 
a  favor  —  which  you  called  a  piece  of  presumption — 

354 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  how  put  out  you  were  because  I  let  them  through, 
after  all." 

"  Well,  times  have  changed,  for  they  are  now  in  the 
high  tide  of  fashion,  thanks  largely  to  the  younger 
brother's  shrewd  Southern  wife,  who  is  past-mistress 
in  the  science  of  social  strategy.  She  was  clever  enough 
to  secure  the  assistance  of  that  other  Southern  girl 

who   married   the   impoverished   Lord  M e, 

and  what  between  the  desire  of  the  smart  set  here  to  view 

the  treasures  accumulated  in  the  new  V 

mansion  and  the  gratification  of  becoming  the  friend  of 

Lady  M e,  the  future  Duchess  of  M r, 

everybody  responded  to  the  invitation  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 

V to  the  magnificent  fancy-dress  ball  with 

which  they  inaugurated  their  social  career." 

In  the  adjoining  box  was  a  man  whose  clean-cut, 
refined  face  and  trim  figure  attracted  my  attention, 
and  Fred  whispered  to  me  that  it  was  A  ....  n 
I ....  n,  a  leading  banker  of  Swiss  origin,  and  bear- 
ing a  name  celebrated  as  that  of  the  iconoclast  who,  by 
his  researches,  destroyed  everybody's  illusions  as  to 
William  Tell.  His  wife,  who  was  with  him,  proclaimed 
by  her  dress  and  manner  that  she  was  French. 

Just  then  the  door  of  our  box  opened,  and  who  should 
enter  but  C.ount  A  .  .  o,  whom  we  had  last  seen  at  Brus- 
sels, and  who  seemed  quite  as  surprised  to  meet  us  in 
New  York  as  we  were  to  find  him  there.  He  was  ac- 
companied by  another  old  acquaintance,  Baron  von 

S ,  the  Austrian  Minister  to  Washington,  a 

delightful  old  man,  who  had  a  queer  trick  of  jerking 
his  head  forward  every  two  or  three  minutes  as  if  his 
collar  were  hurting  the  back  of  his  neck!  He  owed 
his  position  in  the  diplomatic  service  to  the  fact  that 
when  attached  to  the  Austrian  Consulate  in  London, 
when  yet  a  mere  lad,  he  had,  at  the  risk  of  his  whole 

355 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

future,  given  shelter  and  hospitality  to  Julius  Andrassy, 
then  a  political  fugitive  under  sentence  otdeath.  When, 
after  the  Austro-Hungarian  amnesty,  Andrassy  be- 
came Prime-Minister  and  Chancellor  of  the  Dual  Em- 
pire, he  did  not  forget  the  young  consular  clerk  who 
had  befriended  him,  and,  indeed,  remembered  him 
to  such  purpose  that  S became,  in  turn,  Consul- 
General  in  London,  Minister  to  Siam,  Japan,  Cairo, 
and  eventually  Washington.  Naturally,  both  he  and 
the  Count  kissed  my  hand,  which  seemed  to  cause 
some  surprise  in  the  neighboring  boxes.  A  .  .  o  in- 
formed me  that  he  had  just  been  transferred  to  Wash- 
ington with  the  rank  of  German  Envoy  and  Minister 
Plenipotentiary,  which,  however,  did  not  seem  to  par- 
ticularly overjoy  him. 

I  refrained  scrupulously,  of  course,  from  asking 
him  about  Madame  I'Ambassadrice,  for,  alas,  his  run- 
away marriage  with  the  lovely  but  somewhat  flighty 
Viennese  actress  J  .  .  .  .  h,  within  a  few  hours  of  the 
time  appointed  for  her  wedding  to  the  celebrated  actor 
Sonnenthal,  was  eventually  the  cause  of  great  vexa- 
tion and  trouble  to  him.  As  he  belonged  to  a  devout 
Catholic  family,  he  had  much  trouble  in  getting  rid  of 
his  wife  after  the  first  glamour  had  passed  away,  and 
was  only  restored  to  the  diplomatic  service — from  which 
he  had  been  removed  in  consequence  of  his  marriage — 
when  he  had  secured  a  divorce.  I  may  add  that,  later 
on,  J  .  .  .  .  h  came  to  America  professionally,  and  al- 
lowed herself  to  be  billed  on  the  programmes,  not  by 
her  own  name,  but  as  Countess  A  .  .  o,  which  created 
quite  a  stir  in  diplomatic  circles. 

I  was  rather  amused  at  his  coming  into  our  box,  for 
he  was  a  celebrated  mauvaise  langue,  and  his  comments, 
both  on  the  people  present  and  mutual  acquaintances 
in  Europe,  did  not  lack  piquancy. 

356 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Indeed,  I  enjoyed  that  first  evening  in  New  York 
very  much,  and  was  especially  struck  by  the  remark- 
able display  of  jewels  in  the  boxes.  Mrs.  A  .  .  .  ., 
senior,  who  wore  black  and  silver  brocade  of  a  large 
and  conspicuous  pattern,  had  a  regular  breastplate  of 
diamonds,  and  sewn  on  a  black  velvet  knotted  in  her 
hair  some  enormous  solitaires,  which  sparkled  like 
so  many  stars  beneath  the  brilliant  light  of  the  chan- 
delier. The  shapes  of  the  tiaras  sported  by  several  of 
the  ladies  present  were,  however,  somewhat  astonish- 
ing in  an  assemblage  of  untitled  people,  for  I  noticed 
some  shaped  like  imperial  crowns,  others  exhibited 
ducal  strawberry-leaves,  while  again  one  very  stout 
dame,  clad  in  blush-rose-pink  satin,  actually  wore  on 
her  elaborately  curled  tresses  a  sort  of  triple  pontifical 
tiara,  composed  of  gorgeously  gemmed  circlets.  An- 
other, with  superb  pearls  about  her  neck,  had  done  her 
best  to  cultivate  a  vague  resemblance  between  herself 
and  a  certain  much-admired  royal  lady,  for  her  hair 
was  arranged  in  scrupulous  imitation  of  the  bonnet  of 
little  curls  which  we  are  accustomed  to  connect  with 
that  personage.  Beside  her  was  a  very  handsome  girl, 
gowned  in  vivid  azure,  and  with  a  wealth  of  sapphires 
as  big  as  hazel-nuts  radiating  blue  and  purple  rays  in 
every  direction.  How  many  millions  of  dollars  were 
represented  by  those  feminine  ornaments  it  would  be 
difficult  to  guess,  and  Count  A  .  .  o  asked,  plaintively, 
what  was  the  use  of  abstaining  from  the  annoyance 
and  etiquette  of  a  Court,  if  one's  womenkind,  with  a 
lamentable  disregard  for  democratic  simplicity,  insisted 
on  garbing  themselves  as  for  a  Bal-bei-Hof  on  a  mere, 
plain,  every-day  occasion  like  the  present  one?  We  all 
laughed  at  this  sally,  and,  the  time  having  come  for  us 
to  return  home,  sought  our  respective  carriages. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  hotel,  where  a  nice  little  sup- 

357 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

per  was  awaiting  us  in  our  private  dining-room,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  we  had  brought  Mr.  V  ....  z  with  us, 
Bertrand,  with  one  of  his  sudden  bursts  of  irrepress- 
ible gayety,  seized  his  opera-hat,  and,  using  it  as  a 
tambourine,  began  whirling  round  the  room  singing 
the  following  extraordinary  ditty,  which  amazed  Fred 
and  myself,  and  sent  the  friend  into  roars  of  laughter : 

"  Society,  Mickey,  the  travellers  say, 
Is  a  game  inthrancin'  the  monkeys  play. 
The  haut-ton,  up  in  a  palm-tree  high, 
Swing  by  their  tails  an'  shpit  in  the  eye 
Of  the  vile  plebeians  an'  nouvo  ritches 
As  wears  a  different  cut  of  britches, 
An'  thry  to  climb  wid  mean  dishpite 
That  glitterin'  an'  malodorous  height. 
But  there's  some  don't  care  for  the  game  at  all. 
An'  them's  the  properest  lads  of  all." 

"Where  on  earth  did  you  get  that?"  exclaimed  Fred. 
"You  certainly  seem  to  have  assimilated  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  country  with  startling  rapidity/' 

"Do  tell  us  where  you  got  it/'  I  said;  but  the  lad, 
with  the  utmost  gravity,  took  his  place  at  the  table, 
and  nothing  would  induce  him  to  reveal  the  source 
from  which  he  had  drawn  this  remarkable  quip,  even 
when  we  were  alone  together  and  I  attacked  him  again 
on  the  subject.  I  therefore  always  retained  some  sus- 
picion that  he  had  composed  it  himself  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment. 

On  the  next  night  we  dined  with  the  C  ...  s  F  ....  s 
of  trans  -  Atlantic  cable  fame,  in  a  charming,  old- 
fashioned  house  somewhere  near  Gramercy  Park. 
The  drawing-room  was  a  double  one,  separated  by 
white  columns — "colonial,"  they  said  they  were — 
and  there  were  quantities  of  pretty  and  costly  things 
strewn  all  around  on  handsome,  ponderous,  antique 

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A   DOFFED   CORONET 

cabinets  and  bahuts.  There  were  few  guests  besides 
ourselves,  but  the  dinner-table  was  covered  with  a 
mass  of  Russian  violets  and  exquisite  yellow  roses, 
the  cooking  was  perfect,  and  the  service  intrusted  to 
an  English  butler  and  footmen,  who  made  us  forget 
that  this  was  not  in  the  very  heart  of  Mayfair. 

From  that  moment  on  we  were  literally  whirled 
through  a  veritable  maze  of  entertainments,  and  both 
Bertrand  and  I  gauged  the  veracity  of  Fred's  remark 
about  American  hospitality.  Thus  we  spent  Christ- 
mas and  the  New  Year  in  the  gayest  of  fashions,  but  I 
must  confess  that  I  missed  the  quaint  old  ceremonies 
observed  on  those  fete-days  in  Brittany,  Austria,  and 
England.  Here  all  was  too  new,  too  full  of  glitter,  too 
superficial  for  such  observances,  and  even  the  Pon- 
tifical Mass  which  I  attended  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathe- 
dral lacked  the  mellowness  of  surrounding  and  much 
of  the  deep  reverence  to  which  I  had  been  accustomed 
all  my  life. 

Perhaps,  too,  I  was  a  little  difficult  to  satisfy  that 
morning,  having  danced  myself  violently  into  the 
New  Year  the  night  before  at  the  A  ...  r's,  but  no — the 
deep  and  mystical  piety  of  my  Bretons  was  absent 
from  the  pomp  and  ceremony  of  that  religious  perform- 
ance. I  could  not  disguise  this  fact  from  myself,  try 
as  I  would! 

It  had  been  arranged  that  we  should  start  for  Chicago 
early  in  January,  and,  in  spite  of  my  love  for  new  sights 
and  travels,  I  did  not  contemplate  the  trip  with  much 
joy,  thanks  to  the  unkind  descriptions  that,  with  touch- 
ing unanimity,  New  Yorkers  had  given  me  of  this  place, 
nor  was  the  Chicago  of  those  years  a  particularly  at- 
tractive town,  as  I  soon  found  out,  though  I  am  told 
it  has  since  changed  completely,  and  now  rivals  New 
York!  The  weather,  moreover,  was  certainly  not  en- 

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A    DOFFED    CORONET 

couraging  for  a  winter  journey,  but  as  it  was  not  en- 
tirely from  choice  that  we  were  going,  and  as  I  was  not 
minded  to  allow  poor  Fred  to  go  alone,  I  resigned  myself 
to  accompanying  him  with  the  best  grace  I  could  muster. 

When,  however,  the  cold  still  increased,  had  it  not 
been  that  all  arrangements  had  already  been  made 
for  our  departure  and  that  the  special  car  placed  at 
our  disposal  by  the  president  of  the  railroad  was  await- 
ing us  at  the  station,  we  would  certainly  have  postponed 
this  long  and  fatiguing  trip  until  the  season  had  be- 
come somewhat  more  propitious. 

On  a  freezing  Thursday  night  Fred  and  I  started, 
with  Paul  and  Johanna  in  attendance,  leaving  Ber- 
trand,  who  was  to  wait  at  the  Windsor  for  the  mail  and 
follow  us  later. 

Wrapped  in  furs  to  the  eyes,  we  "  boarded "  the 
train — as  they  say  in  America — and  were  immediately 
overwhelmed  by  that  ghastly,  suffocating  steam-heat 
which  all  over  the  States  is  the  bane  of  travellers  from 
November  until  May. 

With  an  exclamation  of  dismay  I  threw  off  my  long 
coat  and  hood,  and  implored  Fred  to  have  the  car  aired 
before  settling  ourselves  for  the  night.  In  consequence, 
the  colored  attendant  was  summoned,  and  his  astonish- 
ment at  such  a  request  was  really  amusing  to  witness. 
He  suggested,  nevertheless,  that  while  the  windows 
were  open  we  should  temporarily  retire  to  the  neigh- 
boring Pullman,  and  we  followed  his  advice  at  once. 

There  were  very  few  people  there,  all  being  men  save 
one  over-dressed  person  in  a  much  braided  and  broid- 
ered  gray  dress,  fur-trimmed  and  befrogged  until  the 
original  material  barely  appeared,  and  wearing  around 
her  throat  a  gorgeous  ornament  made  of  huge  dia- 
monds, matching  in  size  the  enormous  solitaires  hang- 
ing from  her  large,  flat  ears. 

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A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  turned  my  eyes  quickly  away  from  this  extraor- 
dinary -  looking  object,  who  was  talking  in  a  loud, 
nasal,  excited  voice  to  a  small,  thin,  mean  little  man, 
shabbily  dressed,  and  with  a  hideous  old  crush  hat 
set  far  at  the  back  of  his  head.  He  had  a  very  large 
nose,  a  very  large  mouth,  revealing  long,  discolored 
teeth,  and,  even  when  speaking,  continually  champed 
his  jaws  in  a  fashion  which  to  my  now  more  experienced 
eye  revealed  the  lamentable  fact  that  he  was  chewing, 
and  soon,  to  my  intense  amusement,  he  dexterously 
propelled  a  jet  of  tobacco-juice  into  one  of  those  recep- 
tacles which  I  had  on  my  arrival  mistaken  for  flower 
vases ! 

"Good  shot,  that!"  I  said  to  Fred,  in  French,  gazing 
with  approval  at  the  distance  which  separated  the  worthy 
chewer  from  his  target.  Really,  I  could  not  help  laugh- 
ing !  Fred,  who  often  takes  it  into  his  head  to  adopt  a 
r61e  very  unsuited  to  him — i.e.,  that  of  a  strict  formalist 
— glared  at  me,  indicating  by  a  deprecating  shrug  of 
his  shoulders  and  a  distressed  upheaval  of  his  eye- 
brows to  the  top  of  his  forehead  that  my  conduct  was 
disgraceful,  so  I  concealed  myself  and  my  untimely 
laughter  behind  a  newspaper. 

I  had  been  busy  with  the  columns  of  that  publication 
for  some  minutes,  and  inwardly  reviling  the  thick, 
oppressive  atmosphere  which  here  also  reigned  supreme, 
when  the  little,  weazened  man,  rising  from  his  swivel 
chair,  bore  down  upon  us,  and  with  a  happy  mixture 
of  Yankee  twang  and  German  accent,  said,  touch- 
ing Fred  on  the  shoulder: 

"Hadn't  your  lady  better  come  and  sit  with  mine? 
It  would  be  sorter  less  lonesome  for  her,  as  there's 
nothing  but  gentlemen  in  this  car." 

"A  rash  assertion,"  thought  I,  running  my  eyes  over 
the  men  present,  who  all  of  them  betrayed  only  too 

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A   DOFFED   CORONET 

clearly  the  fact  that  they  were  scarcely  entitled  to  this 
appellation. 

Fred  looked  up  in  some  consternation.  "Oh,  thank 
you  ever  so  much,"  he  replied,  quickly;  "you're  very 
good,  but  my  wife  and  I  are  only  here  for  a  few  moments 
while  the  next  car  is  being  aired.  It  would  hardly 
be  worth  while  to  change  places." 

"  So !  Then  you  are  the  English  gent  who  is  going 
to  Chicago  in  the  president's  special,  hey?" 

"I  suppose  so,"  said  Fred,  quite  bewildered. 

"Ain't  you  sure?"  asked  the  German-Yankee,  with 
a  dry  chuckle  and  a  tightening  of  his  polychrome 
teeth  upon  his  cherished  quid.  "Because  if  you  are 
that  same  gent  I  guess  you  have  got  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion to  me  in  your  pocket.  I  am  John  X the 

'Dead  Meat  King,'  as  they  call  me,  and  you  must  have 
heard  of  me." 

Good  Lord !  The  "  Dead  Meat  King  " !  He  looked  it, 
and  I  thanked  Heaven  inwardly  for  the  sheltering  leaves 
of  the  newspaper  which  hid  me  just  then  from  view. 
Fred  had  risen  and  was  towering  by  some  twenty  or 
thirty  inches  above  His  Beefy  Majesty. 

"Let  me  introduce  you  to  my  wife,"  he  said,  with 
a  refined  courtesy  that  fitted  the  situation  as  an  apron 
would  a  cow. 

"  All  right.  I'll  be  even  with  you  when  we're  alone, 
my  lad,"  I  soliloquized,  reluctantly  dropping  the  paper 
on  my  lap. 

"Glad  to  meet  you;  shake,  there!"  ejaculated  the 
little  man,  with  a  grin  that  nearly  capsized  my  gravity 
again,  for  the  dark  cavern  of  his  mouth  was  revealed 
and  suddenly  gave  his  countenance  a  startling  re- 
semblance to  the  old  -  fashioned  door  -  knockers  which 
in  small  German  towns  still  serve  the  double  purpose 
of  letter -slit  and  a  means  of  arousing  the  people  of 

362 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  house.  I  extended  my  hand,  which  was  imme- 
diately ingulfed  by  one  four  sizes  too  large  for  its  pos- 
sessor and  the  nails  of  which  were  in  deep  mourning 
for  soap. 

" Ho!  Mamie!  Come  over  here,  old  lady,  and  get  ac- 
quainted with  the  madame."  Then,  while  the  female 
mastodon  just  mentioned  was  extricating  herself  from 
a  mass  of  rugs,  shawls,  an  enormous  box  of  bon-bons, 
and  a  couple  of  gold-handled  umbrellas,  which  she  had 
been  nursing  on  her  lap,  her  good  husband  took  from 
his  pocket  a  common,  flat,  yellow  glass  bottle,  un- 
screwed the  metal  lid,  rilled  it  with  a  brand  of  whiskey 
strong  enough  to  speak  for  itself,  which  pervaded  the 
car  with  nauseous  fumes,  and,  offering  it  to  Fred,  said, 
jovially,  "Let's  seal  the  friendship!" 

This  pleased  me  so  immensely  that  I  was  glad  to  rise 
abruptly  from  my  seat  in  order  to  receive  the  "  Dead 
Meat  Queen,"  employing  the  two  or  three  seconds  she 
occupied  in  waddling  across  the  aisle  by  burying  my 
nose  within  the  great  bunch  of  violets  I  held  in  my 
hand. 

"Well,  my  dear,"  she  said,  after  we  had  once  more 
settled  down,  "and  how  do  you  like  our  country?  It 
must  surprise  you  if  you  come  from  the  other  side, 
where  everything  is  so  small  and  uncomfortable.  Don't 
it,  now?" 

"It  does!"  I  said,  gravely. 

"  Now  I  thought  so !  My  man  and  I  went  to  London 
and  Paree  on  our  way  to  Germany  some  years  ago,  but 
I  can't  say  as  I  was  much  impressed  by  both  them  places, 
for  when  once  you  git  used  to  Chicawgo  it's  difficult  to 
put  up  with  anything  else.  And  as  for  Germany," 
continued  the  loquacious  lady,  taking  a  deep  breath, 
"don't  talk  to  me  of  it!  A  dirty,  nasty,  ill-favored 
country,  which  it's  a  wonder  to  me  that  such  fine  men 

363 


as  my  husband  can  ever  have  come  out  of  it.  Been 
to  Germany?"  she  concluded. 

"Yes,  many  times." 

"And  you  like  it?" 

"N-n-o,  not  very  much." 

"Ah!  I  thought  so.  You  look  too  much  the  lady 
to  put  up  with  them  fat  Dutchmen!" 

At  that  moment  I  happened  to  glance  over  my 
shoulder,  and  saw  poor  Fred,  who  had  been  talking 
in  a  lively  and  eminently  praiseworthy  fashion  to 
his  august  interlocutor,  and  holding  in  his  hand  the 
improvised  goblet  of  whiskey,  seize  a  moment  when 
the  latter  was  furiously  blowing  his  nose  with  a  red 
bandana,  to  throw  the  stuff  under  his  seat,  and  that 
with  so  innocent  and  guileless  a  smile  that  I  choked 
to  prevent  myself  from  laughing. 

"What's  tickling  you?"  said  Mrs.  X , 

peering  at  me  with  her  prominent,  chocolate-colored 
eyes.  "  Lord,  my  dear,  but  you  have  a  cheerful  temple- 
ment,  that's  plain  to  be  seen,  and  I  do  hope  that  our 
fine  climate  and  the  decent,  healthy  food  that  you'll 
get  here  will  put  color  in  them  pale  cheeks  of  yours,  for 
that's  all  that's  lacking  to  make  you  real  good-looking !" 
and  without  waiting  for  a  suitable  recognition  of  this 
handsome  compliment,  the  kind-hearted  lady  continued, 
emphasizing  every  word  she  spoke  with  a  smart  little 
tap  of  her  exceedingly  beringed,  short,  red  fingers  on 
my  knee:  "Tell  you  what  you  should  do!  You 
should  let  your  man  go  alone  to  the  hotel,  and  come 
and  stay  with  me  yourself.  I'd  feed  you  up  and  make 
you  look  real  stout  before  I'd  done  with  you." 

"  Thank  you  ever  so  much ;  it's  very  kind  of  you  ; 
but  I  could  not  dream  of  thus  inconveniencing  you,"  I 
replied,  wondering  within  myself  what  she  intend- 
ed to  do  with  Fred,  for  it  did  not  at  first  dawn  upon 

364 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

me   that   the  word   "man"   indicated  him   and   not 
Paul. 

"  Tut,  tut,  my  dear ;  no  inconvenience.  I've  got  as 
fine  a  house  on  Michigan  Avenue  as  you've  seen  in 
your  life,  and  there's  only  the  two  of  us  and  a  son, 
and  a  niece  that  I've  adopted,  to  live  in  it,  not  counting 
the  help,  of  course,  which  is  generally  a  pesky  lot  and 
cruel  hard  to  manage.  I've  taken  quite  a  fancy  to  you 
and  I'm  sorry  to  see  you  look  so  poorly.  Have  you 
been  ill?" 

"  Yes,  but  that  was  quite  a  little  while  ago — several 
months.  I  had  typhoid  fever  in  Egypt." 

"  Egypt  1  Did  you  say  Egypt?"  squealed  the  "  King  " 
in  my  ear,  so  loudly  that  I  jumped  and  dropped  my 
violets  on  the  floor. 

"Yes,  I  said  Egypt." 

"Hum,  that's  in  Africky,  ain't  it?  I  hain't  quite 
forgotten  my  gee-ography  yet.  And  what  were  you 
doing  there?" 

"  Oh,  nothing  in  particular.  Listening  to  the  croco- 
diles' sobs  and  looking  at  the  mummies ;  not  much  else." 

"  Ah,  I  thought  so !  Loafing !  That's  what  all  you 
Yurrupeans  do  as  soon  as  you've  got  a  penny  of  your 
own,  and  that's  why  you  come  over  here  in  droves  to 
be  fed  by  us  Amurricans  when  you've  run  through 
your  dollars." 

There  was  of  course  no  controverting  such  a  truism, 
and  I  gazed  at  this  wise  man  with  an  expectant  and 
encouraging  look.  He  nodded,  and  then,  placing  one 
of  his  hairy,  square-fingered  paws  on  my  arm,  said, 
interrogatively : 

"Got  any  of  them  things  about  you?  I'd  like  to 
see  some  of  them." 

"What  things?"  I  asked,  in  surprise. 

"Why,  them  mummies  and  crocodiles." 

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A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"About  me?    Do  you  mean  in  my  pocket?" 

"Yes,  or  in  your  satchel." 

I  looked  keenly  at  him  to  ascertain  whether  he  was 
joking  or  whether  his  comprehension  of  these  words 
was  somewhat  at  fault,  but  noticing  his  expectant 
and  attentive  expression,  I  apologized  for  my  neglect 
in  not  providing  myself  with  such  objects  of  general 
interest  before  leaving  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs.  Fort- 
unately, at  that  moment  a  sleek  and  prosperous-look- 
ing man,  with  glossy  side-whiskers  and  a  velvet  cap, 
burst  suddenly  into  a  roar  of  laughter,  and,  jump- 
ing out  of  his  chair  as  if  he  had  been  shot  out  of  a 
catapult,  rushed  from  the  car,  nearly  upsetting  Paul, 
who,  preternaturally  solemn  and  dignified  as  usual, 
was  approaching  to  announce  that  our  quarters  were 
set  to  rights  and  habitable.  This  little  incident  cut 
short  our  interesting  conversation,  and  with  a  "Yes, 
Paul,  we're  coming,"  I  rose  at  once. 

"That  a  friend  of  yours?"  said  Mrs.  X , 

gazing  approvingly  upon  the  tall,  soldierly  figure  of 
my  confidential  servant,  irreproachably  clad,  gloved 
and  groomed,  and  who  certainly  looked  more  like  a 
retired  diplomat  than  one  of  the  fraternity  which  she 
had  comprehensively  and  inappropriately  called  "help." 

"No;  that's  my  servant." 

"Your  servant!  You  mean  to  tell  me  that  you 
brought  a  servant  over  to  Amurrica  with  you?" 

"Pardon  me,  I  brought  three,  and  my  brother,  who 
has  remained  in  New  York,  one.  My  maid  is  at  pres- 
ent in  the  next  car  waiting  to  help  me  undress." 

"Well,  I  never!  No  wonder  you  are  called  a  spend- 
thrift race!  The  idea!  Say,  John,  d'ye  hear  that? 
Them  people  brought  four  servants  to  'tend  to  them  all 
the  way  from  Yurrup!" 

The  "  Dead  Meat  King  "  shrugged  his  narrow,  stoop- 

366 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ing  shoulders  with  ineffable  contempt.  "  I'd  like  to  see 
myself  travelling  with  a  fine  gentleman  like  that  for 
my  valley.  I'd  feel  like  kickin'  the  stuff  n'  out  of  him 
all  day  long.  Good-for-nothin',  lazy  lot,  all  of  them." 

"Excuse  me,"  I  said,  beginning  to  lose  patience 
a  little;  "the  man  has  been  nearly  ten  years  in  my 
employ,  and  is  one  of  the  best  and  most  trustworthy 
persons  imaginable.  But  I  will  now  say  good-night, 
as  it  is  getting  late." 

"  Oh,  don't  go  away  mad !  Have  some  whiskey,  just 
a  teeny  drop  to  warm  your  vittles  before  bed.  It  won't 
hurt  you.  Mamie  takes  a  lick  of  it  herself  sometimes. 
It's  much  better  than  all  your  Frenchified  wines  for 
the  digestion,  for  it's  good,  honest,  genuyne  licker,  at 
least,  and  cost  me  fifty  cents  a  pint  at  the  refreshment- 
room  in  N'  York,  so  I  know  it  must  be  pretty  good." 

"My  wife  drinks  nothing  but  water,"  interposed 
Fred,  judging  that  I  must  be  by  this  time  past  speech. 

"  Well,  at  meal-times  that's  right ;  so  do  I,  or  else  milk ; 
but  'tween  times  a  little,  delicate  thing  like  her  wants 
something  comforting,  like  Old  Rye,  or  else  some  good 
meat-juice.  I'll  make  you  taste  some  made  by  myself 
from  the  cattle  raised  on  my  ranches  in  Texas.  It's 
strong  enough  to  wake  a  corpse.  You'll  see!  Just 
wait  till  I  get  you  down  in  the  stock-yards!" 

With  this  promising  prospect  we  sought  the  blessed 
seclusion  of  the  president's  car,  and  hardly  had  the 
door  closed  behind  us  when  I  gave  free  vent  to  the  ex- 
uberant mirth  repressed  during  the  last  hour. 

"Oh,  Fred!"  I  said,  as  soon  as  I  could  speak;  "this  is 
delicious!  What  sort  of  people  are  they?  How  I  wish 
Bertrand  was  here,  he  would  enjoy  it  so!  Isn't  that 
man  a  Jew?  And  as  to  her — good  Lord!" 

Fred,  who  was  winding  up  his  watch,  looked  gravely, 
almost  reprovingly,  at  me.  "Dash  it  all,"  he  said, 

367 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  you  have  no  business  to  be  so  critical ;  they  are  well- 
meaning  people  enough,  and  I  was  all  the  time  in  dread 
lest  they  should  notice  that  you  were  laughing  at  them." 

I  looked  at  him  in  amazement.  "  I'm  sorry  you  did 
not  drink  that  whiskey  now,  and  that  it  didn't  choke 
you,  you  sanctimonious  hypocrite!  Now  go  to  bed, 
and  send  Johanna  to  me ;  I'm  tired.  Heaven  be  praised 
that  we  have  this  car,  and  are  not  obliged  to  anchor 
alongside  that  pair.  I  am  sure  they  both  snore  like 
church-organs."  With  which  peroration  I  turned  my 
back  upon  my  lord  and  gazed  out  upon  the  dreary, 
snow-clad  plain  that  we  were  traversing. 

"Look  here,  Pussy,  don't  be  huffy,"  he  said,  apolo- 
getically; "they  are  vulgar  people,  certainly,  but  you 
must  make  allowances.  He  is  a  German  peasant 
with  probably  a  touch  of  Semitic  blood,  and  a  brain 
turned  by  American  theories  and  ideas  which  he  cannot 
assimilate,  and  too  many  millions  as  well.  As  for  his 
wife,  she's  a  motherly  old  thing  with  no  harm  in  her.  I 
have  letters  of  introduction  to  him,  and  since  he  has  been 
warned  of  our  coming,  there  is  no  use  in  putting  their 
backs  up,  for,  after  all,  it  may  interest  you  to  visit  his 
slaughter-houses  and  factories — you,  who  are  always 
so  fond  of  couleur  locale!" 

"Amenl"  I  replied.  "Truly,  you  are  an  amiable 
and  worthy  preacher.  This  is  a  talent  I  did  not  know 
you  possessed,  and  one  which  I  advise  you  seriously 
to  cultivate.  But  now,  if  you  will  be  so  kind  as  to  send 
me  my  maid,  as  I  have  already  asked  you  to  do,  I  will 
be  greatly  obliged,  for  this  conversation  with  your 
new  friends  has  exhausted  me." 

He  laughed,  went  forthwith  to  summon  Johanna, 
and  soon  after  I  was  sleeping  the  sleep  of  the  just,  rocked 
by  the  oscillations  of  the  train,  which  was  bearing  me 
farther  and  farther  from  mine  own  land. 

368 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

Of  the  rest  of  the  trip  there  is  little  to  say,  save  that 
it  was  very  wearisome,  and  that  Their  Majesties,  the 
"  Dead  Meat  King  and  Queen,"  let  no  occasion  pass  to 
improve  the  acquaintance  thus  fortuitously  begun.  In- 
deed, bolts  and  bars  could  not  keep  them  out  of  my  way, 
for  hardly  had  I  finished  dressing  next  morning  when 
the  lady  pushed  herself  in  and  actually  embraced  me 
tenderly,  which  set  my  teeth  on  edge,  for  under  no  cir- 
cumstances am  I  of  a  caressing  turn  of  mind,  and  this 
extraordinary  familiarity  almost  took  my  breath  away. 
There  she  sat,  watching  with  curious  eyes  Johanna 
put  away  my  night-robe  and  the  various  toilet  para- 
phernalia scattered  around,  and  the  only  remark  worthy 
of  record  was  her  question  as  to  the  use  of  so  elabo- 
rate a  night-dress,  as  no  one  but  one's  husband  saw 
it,  and  why  I  went  to  the  trouble  of  wearing  such 
beautiful  silken  underclothing  beneath  a  plain  wool- 
len travelling-gown.  She  also  went  into  raptures 
over  my  dressing-case,  and  finally  got  so  much  on 
my  nerves  that  I  felt  like  shrieking  with  sheer  exas- 
peration. 

At  last  we  reached  Chicago,  and  drove  at  once  to 
the  hotel,  where  Paul  had  secured,  by  telegraph, 
a  very  showy  and  sumptuous  apartment  for  us.  On 
the  morrow,  just  as  I  was  about  to  sit  down  to  break- 
fast, Mrs.  X 's  card  was  brought  to  me  with 

a  message  to  the  effect  that  that  lady  was  at  the  door 
with  her  sleigh  to  take  me  for  a  drive  about  town. 

Greatly  annoyed,  I  sent  word  that  as  I  had  only  just 
sat  down  to  breakfast  I  would  not  care  to  keep  her  wait- 
ing so  long.  But  another  message  returned  to  the  effect 
that  she  would  be  glad  to  wait  in  the  parlors  until  I 
had  finished;  so  that,  much  to  Fred's  mischievous 
amusement,  I  had  no  alternative  but  to  acquiesce, 
swallow  my  breakfast  hastily,  and  join  her  down- 
34  369 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

stairs.  She  was  dressed  with  the  utmost  magnificence 
in  a  gown  of  purple  velvet  and  a  long  and  evidently 
very  costly  seal-skin  wrap,  the  whole  topped  off  with 
a  bonnet  which  seemed  chiefly  composed  of  red  dahlias 
and  golden  wheat-ears. 

Silently  and  very  unwillingly  I  followed  her  out  to  a 
gorgeous  sleigh,  drawn  by  two  prancing  black  horses, 
and  driven  by  a  coachman  who  looked  like  a  hay-stack, 
so  profuse  and  shaggy  were  the  furs  which  enwrapped 
him. 

"Pat,"  said  his  mistress,  "this  is  a  compatriot  of 
yours,  and  you'll  be  glad  to  pass  her  the  time  of  day." 
Then,  turning  to  me,  "This  is  Patrick  Muldoon,  who 
is  from  your  side  of  the  world."  I  have  often  since 
then  thanked  a  merciful  Providence  that  I  did  not  lose 
my  presence  of  mind.  I  stepped  briskly  forward  and, 
holding  out  my  hand  with  eager  and  what  I  thought 
pleasingly  democratic  spontaneity,  said,  gravely: 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Muldoon ;  it  is  al- 
ways so  nice  to  meet  a  compatriot." 

With  difficulty  "  Mr."  Muldoon  turned  his  head  inside 
the  storm-collar  of  his  fur  cape,  and,  much  to  my  sur- 
prise, displayed  a  good,  honest  Irish  face,  full  of  con- 
sternation and  almost  of  reproach,  as  if  he,  at  least, 
saw  the  incongruity  of  the  situation.  This  grieved  me, 
and,  extending  my  hand  farther  towards  him,  I  said, 
smiling:  "Won't  you  shake  hands?  I  assure  you  it 
really  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  meet  you.  You  need 
not  doubt  it." 

He  dropped  his  whip,  and  in  a  bashful,  almost  shame- 
faced way  that  went  to  my  heart,  held  out  his  own 
enormous  palm,  which  looked  positively  gigantic  in  its 
fur-lined  glove,  and  squeezed  my  fingers  so  violently 
that  I  winced.  Then,  to  relieve  the  situation  of  its 
embarrassment,  I  walked  forward  and  stroked  the 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

glossy  neck  of  the  magnificent  horse  nearest  me,  say- 
ing, with  quiet  appreciation : 

"These  are  fine  horses,  Pat;  one  can  see  that  you 
take  wonderful  care  of  them." 

The  man  gave  me  a  nine-inch  smile,  and  was  about, 
as  I  could  see  by  the  twinkle  of  his  small,  blue  eyes, 
to  offer  some  information  about  the  team,  when  "  Her 
Majesty  the  Queen"  peremptorily  ordered  me  to  "stop 
fooling,"  as  I  would  be  frozen  to  death  if  I  waited  much 
longer  on  the  sidewalk. 

I  climbed  obediently  into  the  sleigh,  and  we  were 
whirled  off  at  once  along  Michigan  Avenue  and  the 
shore  of  the  frozen  lake,  across  which  a  wind  of  such 
grewsome  iciness  blew  that  even  in  a  Siberian  mid- 
winter I  had  not  endured  anything  like  it.  Speech 
was  impossible,  and  I  was  glad  enough  of  the  light, 
white,  knitted  shawl  which  my  hostess  flung  over  my 
head  —  face  and  all  —  like  a  ydshm&k,  after  an  ap- 
proved Chicago  fashion,  for  all  the  women  we  met, 
whether  walking  or  driving,  were  similarly  accoutred. 
After  a  seemingly  interminable  drive  we  stopped  be- 
fore a  large,  pretentious  mansion  and  fairly  ran  up 
the  steps  into  a  spacious  hall  of  wonderful  and  awe- 
inspiring  nakedness,  for  it  contained  nothing  but  a  com- 
mon china-ware  umbrella-stand  and  an  oaken  bench. 

From  this  we  passed  into  a  drawing  -  room  which 
at  first  seemed  made  entirely  of  pure  gold,  the  ceiling, 
walls,  and  furniture  being  so  elaborately  and  thickly 
gilded  that  my  eyes  ached.  The  sofas  and  couches 
were  covered  with  crimson  velvet,  and  the  rug  and 
curtains  were  of  the  brightest  of  brilliant  greens! 

"Ain't  that  a  lovely  room?"  quoth  Her  Majesty, 
seating  herself  on  a  glittering  ottoman,  and  indicating 
with  a  wide  sweep  of  her  plump  arm  the  dazzling  splen- 
dors of  her  abode. 

37i 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"It  is,  indeed,"  I  replied,  with  mild  stupefaction. 
"To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  have  never  seen  one  like  it." 

"Of  course  not,  of  course  not!  How  could  you?  I 
bet  you  there  isn't  a  parlor  like  this  in  any  of  the  royal 
palaces  of  Yurrup." 

"Indeed,  there  is  not,"  I  replied,  truthfully,  gazing 
about  with  curiosity. 

"Now,  if  you're  interested  in  pictures,  just  clap  an 
eye  on  those  opposite.  My  man  bought  them  in  New 
York  only  last  year,  and  I  make  free  to  say  they  can- 
not be  equalled  for  beauty." 

I  rose  dutifully,  and  turned  my  attention  to  a  score 
or  so  of  that  particular  brand  of  horror  which  is  to  be 
met  with  in  most  of  the  small  hotels  in  Switzerland, 
and  which  I  have  always  dubbed  "  oleomargarines  " — 
in  other  words,  the  most  bare-faced  chromos  imaginable. 
The  frames,  however,  were  so  visibly  costly  that  my 
enthusiastic  exclamation  of  "  Oh,  superb ! "  was  partly 
truthful. 

"Excuse  me  a  moment,"  said  the  mistress  of  this 
priceless  collection.  "  While  you  are  looking  around  a 
bit  I  will  go  and  call  my  niece,  who  would  be  awfully 
riled  if  I  didn't  let  her  see  you." 

Patiently  I  waited,  curious  to  know  what  new  shock 
was  in  store  for  me,  until  the  door  opened  and  Mrs. 

X re-entered,  shouting,  as  she  came,  "  My 

niece  is  out,  but  I've  brought  another  compatriot  of 
yours  with  me."  This  time  I  was  ready  for  her,  and 
evinced  no  astonishment  when  a  portly,  white-aproned 
dame  entered  and  stepped  up,  smiling  amiably. 

"This/'  said  Mrs.  X ,  "is  Mrs.  Williams, 

who  does  the  cooking  for  us.  She's  from  England, 
like  yourself,  and  she's  a  reg'lar  artist  at  puddings 
and  all  such  like." 

"How  do  you  do,  Mrs.  Williams?"  I  said,  affably, 

372 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

and,  making  room  on  the  sofa  beside  me,  I  added, 
"Won't  you  sit  down  here  and  talk  to  me  a  little?" 

This  excellent  woman  evidently  did  not  possess  the 
natural  tact  which  distinguished  "Mr."  Muldoon,  for 
with  a  great  rustle  of  starched  petticoats  she  seated  her- 
self, and  deigned  to  favor  me  with  a  quantity  of  polite 
small  talk,  which  much  delighted  me.  "  I've  served,  in 
my  time/'  said  she,  "  in  the  first  families  of  England,  and 
I  don't  like  this  country  much,  but  the  wages,  of  course, 
is  so  much  better  than  over  there  that  I'll  stay  a  few 
years  longer,  ye  understand,  mem — or  perhaps  I  should 
say  'my  lady,'  by  the  looks  of  you,"  and  then,  screen- 
ing her  wide  mouth  elaborately  with  her  hand,  she 
continued,  in  a  loud  whisper: 

"  In  course  I  know  as  'tain't  my  place  to  sit  here  by 
the  likes  of  you,  but  in  this  'ouse  the  customs  is  dif- 
ferent, and  if  I  gave  up  one  of  my  privileges  I  wouldn't 
get  the  same  treatment  afterwards." 

I  laughed,  and  sincerely  hoped  that  her  mistress, 
who  was  fussing  at  the  other  end  of  the  room  with  some 
greasy  little  packages  which  she  had  brought  from 
the  sleigh,  had  not  heard  what  she  said.  Soon  that 
lady  approached  and  asked  what  I  would  like  to  have. 

"Nothing,  thank  you,"  I  replied.  "I've  only  just 
breakfasted.  I  could  not  swallow  a  morsel  of  any- 
thing." 

"  Now,  that's  wrong ;  a  slice  of  plum-cake  and  a  nice 
mug  of  newly  drawn  ale,  or  else  a  good  cup  of  coffee 
and  cream  and  some  hot  griddle-cakes,  would  do  you 
good,  I  know." 

I  shuddered  at  the  bare  idea  of  this  delicate  fare. 

"Anyhow,  we'll  go  and  see  the  dining-room,"  con- 
cluded Mrs.  X ,  leading  the  way  down  a  nar- 
row passage  and  a  narrower  staircase  to  the  lower 
regions,  into  a  low-ceiled  apartment  papered  in  sun- 

373 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

flower  yellow,  with  a  big,  garish,  brown-and-blue  pat- 
tern of  the  leech-and-centipede  order  crawling  all  over 
it,  and  furnished  with  light  oak,  which  struck  a  chill 
to  one's  very  soul  in  such  weather. 

"This  art  paper/'  exclaimed  my  hostess,  with  par- 
donable pride,  "  was  a  present  of  my  man  for  my  last 
birthday.  He  surprised  me  with  it  when  I  came  back 
from  a  visit  to  Mommer  out  in  Michigan.  That  man's 
got  a  taste  such  as  few  people  has,  and  he's  promised 
to  give  me  curtains  to  match  the  walls  when  he  next 
goes  East." 

I  silently  wondered  what  the  anticipated  draperies 
would  be  like,  and  drew  my  furs  about  me,  for  the  tem- 
perature of  that  "art"  dining-room  must  have  been 
something  below  zero. 

"It's  a  bit  chilly  down  here,"  said  Mrs.  X , 

possibly  divining  my  thoughts,  "  as  we  don't  light  up 
the  stove  except  at  meal  times,"  and  she  airily  in- 
dicated an  extraordinary  machine  of  iron  and  brass, 
with  a  transparent  mica  front,  which  filled  the  space 
between  the  windows.  "You  can't  imagine,"  she 
continued,  with  grim  enjoyment,  "what  an  economy 
them  kerosene-stoves  is,  and  except  for  a  little  smell 
occasionally  they're  regular  treasures.  Me  and  my 
man  don't  believe  in  wasting  money,  piles  being  hard 
to  make,  and  when  he's  got  too  much  of  it,  he  buys  me 
diamonds,  which  is  portable,  and  always  a  safe  invest- 
ment. Come  to  think  of  it,  I'll  show  you  my  joolry 
when  we  get  up-stairs." 

"You  are,  indeed,  a  fortunate  woman,  Mrs. 
X ,"  I  said,  sweetly. 

"Yes,  that  I  am,"  she  responded,  smiling  all  over 
her  jolly  countenance;  and  so,  after  I  had,  with  justifi- 
able punctiliousness,  gone  to  the  kitchen  to  take  leave 
of  Mrs.  Williams,  I  was  shown  the  contents  of  a  jewel- 

374 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

box  full  of  diamonds,  which,  if  perhaps  not  of  the  very 
first  water,  were,  at  any  rate,  of  a  size  to  compare  fa- 
vorably with  carriage-lamps  or  carafe-stoppers.  Other 
gems  there  were  none,  for,  as  their  owner  judiciously 
remarked,  "Colored  stones  make  no  show,  and  look 
like  nothing  but  bits  of  glass."  And  as  to  pearls,  she 
had  no  use  for  them,  a  statement  with  which  I  cord- 
ially agreed. 

I  had  the  utmost  difficulty  in  escaping  from  the  hos- 
pitable hands  of  the  lady,  who  was  determined  that  I 
should  lunch  among  the  centipedes  and  leeches,  and 
I  could  have  almost  shouted  for  joy  when  I  took  an  af- 
fectionate leave  of  "Mr."  Muldoon  at  the  door  of  the 
hotel,  manifesting  my  satisfaction  by  a  substantial 
douceur.  Fred  was  not  there  when  I  arrived,  but  soon 
came  in  with  the  unwelcome  statement  that  we  were 
dining  that  night  with  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
legal  profession,  who,  with  his  spinster  sister,  had  called 
to  invite  us. 

I  will  always  remember  that  dinner,  and  this,  my 
first  glimpse  of  a  prim,  old-fashioned,  grimly  regulated 
American  household.  I  had,  of  course,  donned  a  low- 
cut  dress,  which,  on  this  occasion,  was  of  pale-pink 
velvet,  bordered  with  ermine  and  lightly  embroidered 
with  seed-pearls,  and  was  a  little  confused  when  con- 
fronted by  a  tall,  gray-haired  woman,  clad  in  black 
silk  high  to  the  throat,  and  adorned  with  six  different 
necklaces — one  of  jet,  one  of  lapis-lazuli,  two  of  gar- 
nets, and  the  rest  of  bright  malachite,  which  fell  grace- 
lessly  over  a  singularly  flat  chest.  A  construction 
of  black  lace  and  violets  crowned  her  scanty  tresses, 
and  there  were  black  lace  mittens  on  her  thin  hands. 

Her  brother  had  a  fraternal  resemblance  to  a  bread- 
knife,  being  very  long,  very  narrow,  and  very  sharp, 
with  a  steely  gleam  in  his  close-set  eyes,  and  a  keen 

375 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

way  of  cutting  through  any  subject  under  discussion, 
which  left  no  possibility  for  argument. 

The  banqueting-hall  was  in  the  basement,  three  or 
four  feet  below  the  level  of  the  street,  and  was  paved 
with  black-and-white  marble,  with  a  little  island  of 
Turkish  rug  under  the  table ;  deep-red  curtains,  bordered 
with  black  velvet  bands,  shrouding  all  the  windows; 
and  two  sideboards,  facing  each  other,  loaded  with 
remarkably  handsome  and  ponderous  antique  Dutch 
plate.  The  table  itself  was  set  on  spotless  damask, 
with  white  china  innocent  of  decoration,  a  limited 
array  of  thickish  glasses,  and  a  low  brass  jardiniere 
filled  with  artificial  roses  and  tulips  which  could  never 
have  deceived  anybody. 

At  a  sign  from  the  animated  bread-knife  we  stood 
behind  our  chairs,  while  he  delivered  himself  of  an  in- 
terminable and  dry-as-dust  grace,  which,  beginning 
with  "firstly,  my  Christian  brethren/'  and  running  on 
through  secondly,  thirdly,  and  fourthly,  was  terminated 
by  a  lugubrious  "  amen,"  drawn  from  the  deepest  cav- 
erns of  his  being,  and  I  rustled  into  my  place  with  a 
sigh  of  relief,  thinking  of  the  party  of  the  first  part 
and  the  party  of  the  second  part.  While  standing 
on  that  thinly  covered  marble  floor,  my  feet,  protected 
only  by  gossamer  silk  hose  and  pink  satin  slippers,  had 
turned  into  icicles,  and  I  would  have  given  anything 
to  stamp  them  a  bit  to  restore  the  circulation. 

I  looked  hopelessly  at  the  iced  clams  before  me,  and 
with  yet  greater  discouragement  upon  the  anaemic 
consomm6,  whereon  floated  little,  pale-faced  noodles 
and  tiny  scraps  of  toast.  This  was  followed  by 
a  large  slice  of  salmon  with  brown  sauce,  a  fat  and 
aldermanic  turkey,  with  the  usual  rich,  red  cranberry 
trimmings,  and  boiled  vegetables,  replaced,  in  turn,  by 
little  round  bullets  of  some  fishy  substance  served  with 

376 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

a  tomato  -  and  -  cucumber  salad,  the  climax  being 
reached  when  pumpkin  -  pies  the  size  of  small  saucers 
and  lemon -ices  in  green  glass  cups  were  set  be- 
fore us. 

"This  is  a  national  dish,"  remarked  the  lady  of  the 
house,  caressing  with  her  dessert-knife  the  little  pie 
before  her.  "  I  thought  you  would  like  to  taste  it,  for  I 
do  not  think  that  in  Europe  you  grow  pumpkins  worthy 
of  the  name." 

"  Pardon  me,  we  do ;  citrouilles  we  call  them,  but  we 
use  them  generally  for  soups." 

"Oh,  indeed!"  with  an  aggrieved  and  saddened 
smile.  "I  have  been  several  times  to  Europe.  My 
brother  and  I  went  to  London,  Paris,  Vienna,  and  even 
to  St.  Petersburg;  that  is  how  I  come  to  have  these 
necklaces,"  and  she  jangled  them  carelessly.  "I  got 
the  jet  in  France — which  is,  I  believe,  celebrated  for  it — 
the  garnets  in  Austria,  where  they  are  quite  plentiful, 
and  the  malachite  and  lapis-lazuli  in  Russia;  they 
make  nice  souvenirs  of  our  journey." 

"What  a  charmingly  original  idea!"  I  exclaimed, 
having  long  since  desired  to  make  some  pleasant  re- 
mark. "  I  trust  that  when  next  you  go  over  to  the  other 
side  you  will  not  forget  to  let  us  know,  so  that  we  may 
have  the  opportunity  of  returning  your  charming  hos- 
pitality." 

"You  are  very  kind,"  she  replied,  rising  and  pre- 
ceding me  to  the  "foyer-hall,"  as  she  called  it,  and 
with  reason,  as  I  shall  show  later.  I  was  cold  to  the 
marrow  of  my  bones,  and  hungry,  too,  for  I  had  hardly 
touched  the  hot  viands  dished  on  cold  plates,  which 
instantly  congealed  their  various  sauces,  and  I  would 
have  welcomed  a  cup  of  hot,  black  coffee,  but  had  to  be 
content  with  tepid,  green  tea,  and  the  rather  dictatorial 
information  that  coffee  was  horribly  destructive  to  the 

377 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

nerves,  and  should  never  be  indulged  in  by  people 
careful  of  their  health. 

"My  brother/'  continued  this  precise  lady,  "has 
very  strict  ideas  of  his  own  about  diet  and  hygiene. 
Now  you  will  have  noticed,  no  doubt,  that  our  house  is 
not  over-heated,  like  most  American  establishments." 

Alas,  I  had  noticed  it,  for  my  arms  and  neck  were 
painfully  ' '  goose-fleshy . ' ' 

"He  sleeps  with  wide-open  windows  all  the  year 
round,  even  on  the  coldest  nights,  and  the  four  fires 
which  you  see  here  are  merely  a  concession  on  his  part 
to  his  plan  of  architecture.  He  designed  this  house 
himself." 

I  thought  to  myself  that  the  concession  was  very 
half-hearted,  for  though  the  idea  of  an  octagonal,  white 
wood  column,  rising  in  the  middle  of  this  foyer-hall,  and 
scooped  out  on  four  sides  into  tiny  excavations  wherein 
smouldered  a  few  handfuls  of  coal,  was  distinctly  novel, 
yet  it  did  not  greatly  improve  the  glacial  atmosphere 
of  this  apartment,  which  was  entirely  panelled  in  glis- 
tening white  and  draped  with  narrow,  sage-green  cur- 
tains and  portieres.  There  were,  however,  on  the 
walls  some  splendid  and  very  interesting  trophies: 
Indian  arms,  feathered  head-dresses,  elaborately  em- 
broidered robes,  and  some  heads  of  elk,  moose,  and 
mountain-goats,  which  testified  to  the  sporting  ten- 
dencies of  the  legal  gentleman  still  sitting  down-stairs 
with  Fred  over  a  bottle  of  old  port. 

The  festivities  of  the  evening  terminated  by  the  ap- 
pearance upon  the  scene  of  small  cups  of  cocoa,  flanked 
by  dry  biscuits  and  salted  almonds,  which  my  host 
declared  to  be  the  best  of  night-caps;  fortunately,  it 
was  a  stirrup-cup  as  well,  and  we  departed  with  mutual 
expressions  of  esteem,  richer  by  a  pair  of  sore  throats, 
a  tomahawk — fit  souvenir  of  this  iron-clad  evening — 

378 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  by  a  neatly  bound  volume  of  that  delightful  book 
Mr.  Isaacs  which,  as  our  legal  friend  truthfully  de- 
clared, "  was  a  wonderful  work  from  the  pen  of  one  of 
the  glories  of  the  recent  school  of  American  literature." 

The  next  day  was  set  apart  for  our  visit  to  the  stock- 
yards, and,  bright  and  early,  we  traversed  a  wilderness 
of  gaunt  wooden  buildings  scattered  amid  empty  lots 
and  uniformly  covered  with  grayish  snow  and  icicles, 
and  finally  reached  an  immense  factory  which,  even 
in  this  purifying  winter  season,  was  heralded  by  an 
agglomeration  of  stenches  quite  impossible  to  describe. 

We  were  received  by  John  X and  his  son,  a 

dark-complexioned,  dark-eyed,  and  dark-haired  youth, 
whose  skin  seemed  to  exude  oil,  and  whose  spare,  nar- 
row-chested figure  had  the  cringing  suppleness  of  the 
Chosen  People  so  unmistakably  that  I  chuckled  inwardly 
at  the  way  in  which  I  had  detected  in  the  father  the 
hereditary  characteristics  which,  even  after  generations 
of  intermixture  with  Gentiles,  yet  remain  ineradicable 
throughout  the  ages. 

"Come  along!  Come  along!"  cried  the  Honorable 
John,  snatching  my  hand  and  tucking  it  under  his 
arm.  "Time's  money  here,  and  I'll  just  run  you 
through  the  whole  thing.  But  pick  up  them  skirts  of 
yours,  for  this  place  ain't  no  drawing-room,  nor  no 
heliotrope  neither,  and  you  should  have  had  the  sense 
to  put  on  a  good,  serviceable  dress  and  heavy  boots, 
instead  of  all  that  highfalutin  finery,"  he  concluded, 
contemptuously,  pointing  to  my  perfectly  plain  mouse- 
colored  cloth  gown,  the  only  sin  of  which  was  to  reveal, 
when  raised  from  the  vile  mud  of  the  path  in  which 
we  stood,  the  "  frou-frou  "  of  silk  petticoats. 

At  the  double-quick  we  raced  into  a  gigantic  shed, 
where  creaking  machinery,  wheels,  and  belts  groaned 
and  shrieked  in  concert,  and  which  was,  moreover, 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

filled  with  the  stench  and  squeals  of  an  army  of  pigs, 
the  lowing  of  cattle,  and  the  terrified  bleat  of  other 
animals  which  I  presumed  were  sheep,  although  I  was 
not  sure. 

Some  of  the  unfortunate  porkers  were  just  being 
urged  down  a  narrow  gang-plank  towards  a  barbarous- 
looking  iron  Tour  de  Nesle,  in  which  they  disappeared, 
grunting. 

"See  them  pigs?"  chuckled  John  X 

"You  mind  how  they  go  in?  Waal,  they  come  out 
on  t'other  side  all  cut  up  and  scraped  and  clean  as 
whistles." 

It  was  impossible  to  say  whether  the  man  was  joking 
or  serious,  but  I  flatly  refused  to  put  his  words  to  the 
proof,  and  allowing  him  to  pounce  upon  Fred  and  con- 
duct him  to  that  abominable  place  of  carnage,  I  bestow- 
ed the  light  of  my  countenance  upon  John  Junior,  who, 
muttering  something  about  steers  and  pens,  strutted  at 
my  side  into  the  yards  proper.  We  walked  upon  some 
rotten  planks  between  two  long  files  of  small,  square 
enclosures,  each  containing  a  wretched,  demoralized 
steer  lying,  standing,  or  even  crouching  in  the  mud, 
and  with  such  woful  expressions  in  their  poor,  fright- 
ened eyes  that  I  could  have  boxed  the  ears  of  the  young 
man  at  my  side  when  he  yelled,  in  a  hoarse  falsetto,  to 
some  men  armed  with  short,  stocky  carbines  to  "come 
up  and  show  the  lady  how  the  brutes  were  knocked 
over." 

Unwilling  a  second  time  to  show  the  white  feather,  I 
stood  my  ground  and  witnessed  the  assassination  of 
several  of  the  meek-eyed  animals,  who,  with  piteous 
groans,  fell  forward,  one  after  another,  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  made  it  impossible  for  me  to  contemplate  eating 
meat  in  the  future. 

As  I  was  turning  away  from  this  ghastly  sight,  I 

380 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

noticed  coming  towards  us  a  cow-boy  with  whom  I 
had  often  conversed  during  our  eventful  trans-Atlantic 
passage.  Tall  and  extremely  well  made,  with  frank, 
blue  eyes,  well-cut  features,  and  a  cap  of  crisp,  golden 
curls,  he  made  a  picturesque  figure  in  his  plains- 
man's costume  as  he  approached  me,  sombrero  in 
hand. 

"Why,  how  come  you  here,  Mr.  P n?"  I  ex- 
claimed, holding  out  my  hand,  which  was  grasped 
eagerly. 

"  I  belong  to  one  of  Mr.  X 's  ranches,  and 

I'm  here  on  business,"  he  replied,  with  his  peculiarly 
winning  smile. 

"You  know  'Gentleman  Sam'?"  squealed  the  heir 
of  the  stock-yards,  with  a  condescending  nod  towards 
his  father's  stalwart  young  employd. 

"  Certainly,  I  know  him.  We  came  over  on  the  same 
boat." 

The  young  man  stared  incredulously.  "On  that 
kind  of  a  boat?"  he  repeated. 

"Yes,"  I  said,  shortly,  not  deeming  it  necessary 
to  enter  into  explanations. 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders  imperceptibly,  and  with 
a  change  of  tone  which  possibly  denoted  a  slight  low- 
ering of  the  opinion  he  had  hitherto  held  of  me,  he  in- 
dicated with  a  motion  of  his  arm  a  broad  plank  en- 
closure which  stood  squarely  across  our  path. 

"Like  to  see  it  all?"  he  said,  listlessly. 

"Yes,"  I  replied  again. 

He  preceded  me  over  the  rotten  planks  covering  the 
mud  and  ice,  and  I  followed  closely,  the  cow-boy  be- 
hind me.  Twenty  yards  farther  John  Junior  looked 
at  me  over  his  shoulder  and  said,  with  a  little,  irritating 
laugh,  "  I  don't  think  you  can  cross  this  without  being 
carried/'  and  he  pointed  to  a  place  where,  for  ten  feet  or 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

so,  the  boards  were  lacking,  and  where  the  half-frozen 
earth  had  been  trampled  into  a  pulp. 

"  I  do  not  suppose  that  you  propose  to  carry  me/'  I 
remarked,  glancing  at  him  with  a  smile.  Before  he 
had  time  to  reply,  "Gentleman  Sam"  strode  past  me, 
holding  in  his  hand  the  broad,  crimson  woollen  sash 
which  he  had  worn  folded  round  and  round  his  waist, 
and  with  a  quick  motion  spread  it  across  the  foul  quag- 
mire. 

"This  is  better  than  nothing,"  he  said,  quietly, 
completely  unconscious  of  the  dark  frown  which  sud- 
denly knit  the  brows  of  his  employer's  son. 

"It  will  do  splendidly,"  I  replied,  walking  lightly 
over  this  improvised  bridge,  which,  as  the  mud  was 
almost  solid,  completely  protected  me  from  its  contact, 
and,  after  inspecting  the  farther  enclosure,  which  con- 
fined a  squealing  whirlpool  of  pigs,  I  recrossed  the  gap 
in  the  boarding  in  the  same  fashion,  and,  still  followed 
by  "Gentleman  Sam,"  we  rejoined  Fred  and  the  "  Dead 
Meat  King"  at  the  corner  of  the  main  building. 

"And  now  lunch,"  said  that  worthy,  with  one  of 
his  most  pernicious  grins.  "  We  all  feel  pretty  hungry, 
I  guess."  This  was  far  from  being  the  case  with  me, 
for  since  I  had  entered  these  shambles  a  feeling  of  posi- 
tive nausea  had  been  creeping  over  me,  and  I  would  have 
been  glad  to  return  to  the  carriage  and  drive  away; 
but  this  was  not  to  be,  for  the  great  John  had  once  more 
seized  my  arm,  and  was  hustling  me  away  with  the 
biggest  strides  his  short  bow -legs  could  encompass 
towards  a  low,  brick  building  from  which  emanated 
odors  of  hot  charcuterie.  Before  I  knew  what  was 
happening  we  entered  the  dark,  smoky  place,  which 
was  crowded  with  men,  apparently  part  butchers  and 
part  clerks,  but  who  all  alike  diffused  a  strong  savor 
of  wet  dog  from  their  unclean  clothing. 

382 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

At  the  far  end  of  the  room  was  a  long,  zinc-covered 
bar,  behind  which  rose  tiers  of  crockery  and  glasses, 
while  upon  it  revolting-looking  messes  smoked  in  great 
dishes,  together  with  tall  coffee-pots,  mugs,  and  pyra- 
mids of  sliced  bread  on  wooden  platters. 

Two  or  three  attendants,  dressed  in  dingy  jackets 
and  aprons,  which  had  once  been  white,  and  with  ex- 
traordinarily sleek,  carefully  parted  hair,  were  hurry- 
ing to  and  fro,  distributing  food  and  drink  to  the  mul- 
titude. 

"Here  we  are,  like  the  politicians,  in  the  hands  of 
our  friends,"  exclaimed  our  amiable  guide,  lifting  me 
suddenly  by  the  elbows,  with  a  strength  one  would  not 
have  expected  from  his  small  frame,  and  depositing  me 
like  a  child  on  a  tall  stool  before  the  bar.  Before  I  had 
recovered  from  my  amazement  he  had  shoved  in  front 
of  me  a  deep  tin  platter  that  I  would  have  thought 
hardly  good  enough  to  feed  a  puppy  from,  containing 
what  seemed  a  sort  of  pie  of  brown  beans  surmounted 
by  a  square  lump  of  fat  pork.  He  then  tossed  me  a 
tin  fork  and  a  black-handled  knife  which  had  seen 
much  service. 

"What  '11  you  drink?"  he  yelled  in  my  ear,  above  the 
din  of  many  raucous  voices  clamoring  for  similar  dain- 
ties. "You  can  have  coffee — good  coffee,  I  tell  you — 
or  milk,  or  anything  else  you  feel  like.  If  you  don't 
see  what  you  want,  ask  for  it." 

I  glanced  appealingly  at  Fred,  who  stood  near,  sep- 
arated from  me  only  by  John  Junior  and  a  fat,  greasy 
individual  with  a  shaggy,  fur  cap  driven  down  over 
his  eyes  and  a  sort  of  blue-jean  night-robe  reaching  to 
his  feet,  but  he  was  making  a  loyal  and  courageous 
attack  on  his  own  tin  platter,  and  did  not  catch  my 
eye,  so  that  I  hardly  knew  what  to  do,  for  the  reek, 
the  heat,  and  the  astoundingly  familiar  handling  of 

383 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

my  host,  which  was  something  I  had  never  before  ex- 
perienced, made  me  feel  exceedingly  queer. 

"I  know  what  you  need/'  said  the  latter.  "Just 
wait  a  minute,  and  I'll  get  you  a  piping-hot  cup  of  beef- 
iuice  fresh  from  the  vats.  That  '11  put  heart  into  you," 
and  with  a  lively  play  of  his  elbows  he  dived  into  the 
crowd  and  disappeared,  much  to  my  relief.  Again  I 
tried  to  catch  Fred's  eye,  but  new  hordes  of  workmen 
having  invaded  my  corner  of  the  room  all  communi- 
cations were  cut  off,  and  I  had  almost  decided  to  slide 
off  my  lofty  perch  and  make  a  bolt  for  the  door  when  a 
large  and  toil-hardened  but  neatly  kept  hand  gently 
touched  my  arm,  and  the  voice  of  "Gentleman  Sam" 
whispered  in  my  ear. 

"  You  don't  fancy  this  place,  my  lady.  Would  you 
like  to  get  away?" 

"  Indeed,  I  would,"  I  exclaimed,  clutching  at  the  big, 
strong  fingers  in  genuine  distress. 

"All  right.  Excuse  me,  then."  Putting  his  arm 
around  me,  he  lifted  me  to  the  floor,  and  added,  in  a 
louder  tone :  "  Here,  mates,  make  room  for  this  lady ; 
it's  too  hot  for  her  in  here." 

Oh,  how  good  the  clear,  freezing  air  felt  outside! 
My  gigantic  escort  looked  sadly  at  me,  as  if  the  whole 
incident  had  been  his  fault,  and  muttered  something 
which  was  lost  in  the  height  above  my  head,  but  it 
sounded  like,  "Damned  old  fool!" — no  doubt  a  refer- 
ence to  his  employer,  which  would  have  greatly  aston- 
ished that  worthy  had  he  heard  it.  "How  are  you 
now,  my  lady?"  he  said,  anxiously. 

"Oh,  all  right,"  I  said,  laughing.  "I  am  sorry  I 
made  such  a  fool  of  myself.  I  am  not  generally  so 
faint-hearted,  but  the  smells,  first  of  the  slaughter- 
houses, then  of  the  pens,  and  finally  those  of 
that  cafe"  yonder,  made  me  feel  a  little  sick.  I 

384 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

am  very  sensitive  to  smells,"  I  concluded,  apologet- 
ically. 

"We-ell,  I  only  wonder  you  held  out  so  long.  This 
part  of  the  town  is  pretty  ripe,  for  it's  got  the  com- 
bined stench  of  many  thousand  head  of  cattle,  dead 
and  alive." 

At  that  moment  John  Senior,  with  his  son  and  my 
lord  and  master,  shot  out  of  the  eating-house,  and  hur- 
ried towards  us  with  loud  exclamations  and  questions 
as  to  my  disappearance.  To  my  intense  amusement, 
John  Junior  was  carrying  a  steaming  cup,  while  his 
father  bore  a  small  loaf  and  brandished  one  of  the 
worn,  disreputable,  black  knives  in  his  hand. 

"That's  a  lovely  trick  you've  played  us!  You're 
a  nice  party,  you  are!  Why  couldn't  you  stay  and 
eat  your  dinner  like  a  Christian,  instead  of  lightin' 
out  with  'Gentleman  Sam/  who  oughter  be  mindin' 
his  own  business  somewhere  else?" 

I  had  borne  already  a  good  deal  of  unpleasant  famil- 
iarity from  His  Majesty  the  "  King,"  but  this  was  going 
a  trifle  too  far,  and  though  I  tried  to  appreciate  the  rough 
hospitality  that  made  him  race  after  me  with  his  cup 
of  beef-juice,  I  was  no  longer  in  the  mood  to  let  him 
address  me  in  that  tone,  and  was  on  the  point  of  an- 
swering him  pretty  sharply,  when  an  imploring  look 
from  Fred  arrested  me,  and  I  contented  myself  with 
saying  that  I  had  been  subject  to  fainting  fits  since  my 
illness,  and  that  the  heat  in  the  cafe  had  been  so  great 
that  I  could  not  have  answered  for  the  consequences 
had  I  remained  much  longer.  With  great  difficulty  I 
prevented  him  from  virtually  pouring  the  contents  of 
the  cup  down  my  throat,  and  it  was  only  by  patiently 
listening  to  a  perfect  torrent  of  encomiums  upon  that 
life-giving  liquid  that  I  succeeded  in  pacifying  him. 

At  last  we  moved  towards  the  carriage,  but  before 
*s  385 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

that  I  turned  to  "Gentleman  Sam/'  who,  quite  regard- 
less of  his  employer's  rude  hint  as  to  his  room  being 
preferred  to  his  company,  still  towered  protectingly  be- 
side me,  and,  holding  out  my  hand,  said,  ignoring  the 
stares  of  the  two  Johns: 

"  I  am  ever  so  much  obliged,  Mr.  P n.  If  you 

happen  to  have  a  moment  to  spare  before  returning  to 
the  ranch,  come  and  see  us;  my  husband  and  myself 
will  be  delighted  if  you  do." 

The  cow-boy  made  me  a  bow  worthy  of  a  throne- 
room,  and,  having  grasped  warmly  the  hand  which 
Fred  extended  with  a  few  words  confirming  the  invita- 
tion, strode  rapidly  away. 

"I  wonder,"  snarled  "King"  John,  scowling  at 
me,  "that  you  care  to  notice  that  stuck-up  jackass!" 
and  he  pointed  at  "Gentleman  Sam's"  retreating 
figure. 

Now  I  do  not  remember  whether  I  mentioned  that 

Samuel  P n,  alias  "  Gentleman  Sam,"  was,  in 

my  hiimble  opinion,  very  far  from  being  a  conceited 
ass,  for,  on  the  contrary,  I  had  long  ere  this  detected 
in  him  the  gentleman  by  nature,  if  not  by  education, 
which  is  the  better  of  the  two.  On  board  the  steamer, 
among  that  rowdy  crew,  I  had  never  seen  him  intoxi- 
cated nor  in  any  way  ill-behaved,  and  that  he  knew 
always  how  to  keep  his  place  was  sufficiently  proved  by 
the  fact  that  he  had  never  tried  to  impose  his  company 
upon  us,  although  both  Bertrand  and  myself  had  often 
sought  him  out  to  ask  for  some  of  his  wonderful  West- 
ern yarns,  which  he  had  a  talent  for  telling  in  a  sim- 
ple, and,  in  its  way,  poetical  fashion,  very  attractive 
indeed.  He  was  invariably  modest,  unobtrusive,  and 
obliging,  although  his  undeniable  good  looks  might 
well  have  made  a  smaller-minded  man  more  presuming 
in  the  presence  of  a  woman.  Above  all,  he  had  to 

386 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

perfection  that  chivalrous,  if  rough-hewn,  courtesy 
which  is  so  charmingly  displayed  by  so  many  of  the 
plainsmen,  and,  indeed,  very  often,  by  comparatively 
uneducated  American  men  towards  all  women,  old  or 
young,  thus  offering  a  pleasing  contrast  to  the  modern 
London  "swell,"  who  of  late  years  has  adopted  an  air 
of  insufferable  camaraderie  towards  the  opposite  sex, 
and  so  far  from  lifting  his  hat  in  bowing,  contents  him- 
self with  barely  touching  the  brim. 

So,  looking  Mr.  X full  in  the  face,  I  said, 

coldly :  "  I  think  you  are  entirely  mistaken  in  your  esti- 
mate of  Mr.  P n.  It  would,  indeed,  be  fortunate 

if  his  manners  and  attitude  were  more  frequently  met 
with  among  those  who  claim  to  be  his  superiors."  The 
taunt  glided  from  the  pachydermatous  hide  of  the 
"King"  like  water  from  a  duck's  back,  but  his  more 
intelligent  son  flushed  a  little,  and  gave  me  a  sidelong 
glance  of  spite  that  nearly  made  me  laugh.  We  drove 
the  interesting  pair  back  to  the  hotel,  and  gave  them  a 
sumptuous  lunch  in  our  apartments,  for  the  enjoyment 
of  which  their  large  ingestion  of  pork  and  beans  had 
evidently  not  disqualified  them.  Towards  the  close  of 
the  feast  the  "  King  "  drew  from  his  pocket  a  couple  of 
diminutive,  brilliantly  labelled  tin  cans,  holding  about 
two  ounces  apiece,  and  to  which  small  can-openers  were 
attached  with  a  wire.  Rising  from  his  place,  he  crossed 
over  to  the  fire,  near  which  I  had  just  sat  down,  tapped 
me  lightly  on  the  shoulder,  and  exclaimed : 

"Now  this  is  what  I  want  to  show  and  explain  to 
you.  See  here.  These  is  samples  of  the  best  concen- 
trated extract  of  beef  that's  made  in  Chicawgo,  or,  for 
the  matter  of  that,  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  I  un- 
derstand you've  got  pretty  high  -  toned  acquaintances 
in  Yurrup.  Ain't  that  so?" 

"Pretty  high-toned?"  I  replied,  resignedly. 

387 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

"I  mean  kings  and  emperors  and  dukes,  and  the 
like  of  that.  Not  that  I  think  much  of  them  personally, 
but  as  customers  they  might  do  well  enough,  because 
there's  no  stuff  on  top  of  this  green  foot-  tool  that  can 

beat  John  X 's  beef -extract  as  a  nourishment 

for  campaigning  soldiers.  What  sort  of  kings  and 
queens  do  you  know — intimately,  I  mean?" 

"Several,"  I  said,  now  ready  for  anything. 

John  X balanced  himself  on  his  heels,  with 

his  thumbs  in  the  arm-holes  of  his  waistcoat,  keeping 
hold,  however,  of  the  little  tin  cans,  as  if  he  wanted  to 
hatch  them  out  by  vital  heat,  and  gave  a  low,  tobacco- 
tainted  whistle. 

"Whew!  Say,  she  ain't  guying  me?"  he  queried, 
over  his  shoulder  to  Fred,  who  did  not  hear  him,  for, 
on  hospitable  thoughts  intent,  he  had  gone  with  John 
Junior  to  the  other  end  of  the  room  towards  a  table 
where  the  cigars  and  liqueurs  had  been  placed. 

"No,  no;  I'm  not  guying  you,"  I  said,  laughing. 
"You  needn't  appeal  to  him.  What  else  do  you  want 
to  know?" 

"Well,  just  this.  Are  you  well  enough  acquainted 
to  go  and  visit  'em?  Yes  or  no?" 

"Of  course  I  am!" 

"  That's  the  cheese.  I'm  going  to  give  you  a  whole 
case  of  little  cans  like  those,  each  with  a  little  patent 
opener  attached,  like  that,  and  when  you  go  back  to 
Yurrup  and  call  on  their  royal  nibses,  you  just 
tuck  one  or  two  into  your  pocket,  and  when  you've 
brought  the  talk  round  to  Amurrica,  as  you  no  doubt 
will,  being  fresh  from  the  States,  you'll  just  whip  one 
out  and  open  it — I'm  going  to  show  you  how — and 
you'll  make  'em  smell  and  taste  it,  for  it's  that  de- 
licious it  ain't  unpleasant  to  eat  right  out  of  the 
can." 

388 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

"What  on  earth  do  you  want  me  to  do  that  for?" 
said  I,  laughing  heartily. 

"S-s-s-sh!  Don't  you  be  foolish.  This  is  no  laugh- 
ing matter.  Mamie's  shown  you  her  jools,  hain't  she? 
Now,  women-folks  never  has  too  many  of  them  things, 
and  if  you  do  what  I  tell  you,  this  old  gent" — and  he 
playfully  tapped  his  chest — "is  going  to  give  you  a 
commission  on  every  can  you  sell,  which  '11  make  it 
easy  for  you  to  visit  the  big  jool  stores  of  the  Palace 
Royal  in  Paree  with  extra  full  pockets." 

"I  am  afraid,"  I  said,  with  a  commendable  show 
of  regret,  "that  this  plan,  though  admirable  in  theory, 
would  not  work  as  well  as  you  anticipate." 

"And  why  not,  pray  tell?  Are  all  them  crowned 
heads  born  fools,  or  would  they  take  offence  at  your 
putting  them  up  to  a  good  thing?" 

I  was  nonplussed.  How  was  I  to  make  that  ex- 
traordinary man  understand  the  enormity  of  his  re- 
quest? Suddenly  a  happy  thought  struck  me. 

"I  take  it,"  I  said,  in  a  thoroughly  business-like 
manner,  "that  you  want  me  to  obtain  army  contracts 
for  you." 

"Now  you're  shoutin',"  he  said,  enthusiastically. 

"  Pardon  me,  I  have  not  raised  my  voice,"  I  replied, 
somewhat  confused. 

"  Oh,  I  mean  you've  hit  the  nigger-baby,  you  know 
—you're  on  the  track,  that  is." 

"  Oh,  very  well !  If  that  is  what  you  want,  you  should 
approach  my  husband,  not  me.  He  knows  a  great 
many  ministers  of  war,  and  it  is  they  who  manage 
such  matters,  and  not  the  sovereigns  themselves,"  I 
concluded,  dogmatically,  delighted  to  shift  the  burden 
of  so  weighty  an  affair  onto  Fred's  shoulders! 

"  All  right.  I'll  tackle  him  right  away.  Only  what 
them  sovereigns  is  paid  money  by  the  people  for,  if  it 

389 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ain't  even  to  look  after  the  proper  feeding  of  their  sol- 
diers, beats  me  hollow!" 

"  Dear  me,  Mr.  X ,  why  are  you  so  aston- 
ished? Are  you  not  a  European?  Your  wife  said  you 
were  German." 

"I?  Lord  preserve  us!  I  came  over  here  as  a  little 
shaver  about  twelve  years  old,  and  I'd  never  have  set 
foot  in  the  old  country  again  if  it  hadn't  been  to  collect 
my  grandfather's  legacy.  'Twasn't  much  of  a  legacy, 
but  everything  counts,  and  I  wasn't  going  to  let  it  fall 
into  the  hands  of  a  lot  of  hungry  Dutchmen,  who  were 
just  achin'  for  it.  I  ain't  above  turning  an  honest 
penny  if  I  can,  and  it  ain't  because  I've  got  millions  of 
my  own  that  I  can  afford  to  sneeze  at  several  cool  hun- 
dreds! No,  ma'am;  my  parents  was  foreigners,  but 
I'm  a  free  Amurrican  citizen;  I  ain't  the  slave  of  no 
effete  Yurropean  despotism." 

I  nodded.  Outside  the  snow  was  falling  heavily, 
covering  the  edges  of  the  balcony  with  a  regal  fur  bor- 
der, and,  shuddering  a  little,  I  thought  of  the  big  din- 
ner-party we  were  to  attend  that  evening.  Somehow 
or  other  the  snow  seemed  colder  here  than  even  in 
Russia,  and  that  eternal  wind,  blowing  over  the  white 
stretches  of  the  lake,  was  certainly  more  thoroughly 
iced  than  anything  of  the  sort  \  had  as  yet  encoun- 
tered. 

John  X had  joined  Fred,  and  was  pouring 

into  his  ear  his  sanguine  projects  for  the  furtherance 
of  his  interests  at  the  Courts  of  Europe,  and  John  Ju- 
nior crossed  the  room  towards  me  in  his  curious, 
shambling  way.  "  O  patre  pulchro  fill  pulchrior " 
I  thought,  wearily,  as  he  leaned  his  thin,  curved 
shoulder  against  the  mantel-piece,  with  conversational 
intent  plainly  depicted  on  his  sour  little  countenance. 

"You  made  me  very  jealous  this  morning,"  he 
390 


smirked,  twirling  his  apology  for  a  mustache  with  the 
afr  of  an  all-conquering  hero. 

"  God  forgive  me  \"  I  mused ;  "  this  little  beast  is  going 
to  try  and  flirt  with  me!"  This  was  so  funny  that 
my  dawning  ill-humor  immediately  evaporated,  and  I 
turned  to  him  with  a  smiling  face  and  an  inward  spasm 
of  merriment. 

"Indeed!"  I  said. 

"  Yes ;  although  I  could  not  make  up  my  mind  about 
a  girl  of  your  evident  refinement  really  admiring  mere 
brute  strength." 

"And  why  not?"  I  asked.  "Mere  brute  strength 
has  its  charm  from  an  artistic  point  of  view." 

"  Oh,  you're  only  laughing  at  me,  I  see ;  perhaps  you 
don't  know  that  I'm  a  college  man  " — this  in  a  nettled 
tone. 

"What  did  you  say  you  were?" 

"I  mean  that  I  was  brought  up  at  a  university." 

"  Well,  one  must  be  brought  up  somewhere,  must  one 
not?"  I  rejoined. 

"Certainly;  but  I  didn't  want  you  to  think  that  I 
was  a  mere  high-school  graduate.  You  see,  my  father 
is  a  plain  sort  of  a  man,  who  never  had  the  advantages 
of  education;  but  it  is  different  with  me,  and  I'm  only 
in  business  with  him  because  the  old  man,  who  is  as 
stubborn  as  a  mule,  insisted  upon  it,  and  threatened  to 
disown  me  if  I  refused.  Now  I  would  have  preferred 
to  adopt  some  profession,  like  the  law,  for  instance,  or 
else  to  travel  about  for  pleasure  awhile." 

"It  is  very  good  of  you  to  tell  me  all  that,"  I  replied, 
politely ;  "  but  I  do  not  think  that  you  should  speak  of 
your  father  as  you  do.  He  must  be  a  man  of  consid- 
erable energy  and  talent  to  have  built  up,  single-handed, 
such  a  business  as  his — another  admirable  example  of 
brute  force,  by  the  way." 

39i 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

The  young  hopeful  shrugged  his  shoulders  disdain- 
fully. "Pshaw!"  he  said;  "don't  you  make  any  mis- 
take. I  can  guess  what  you  think  of  a  man  like  him, 
and  of  the  old  lady,  too,  although  you  concealed  your 
feelings  mighty  well  this  morning,  and  even  at  lunch, 
when  he  paraded  his  primitive  table-manners  under 
your  very  nose.  I'm  no  fool." 

"No,  you  are,  1  am  afraid,  something  infinitely 
worse!  Your  father  may  be,  let  us  say,  a  rough  dia- 
mond ;  but  you — you  .  .  .  well,  I'd  sooner  not  tell  you 
what  I  think,  and  so  with  your  kind  permission  I 
will  now  join  that  very  ill-educated  person,  your  father, 
who  at  least  is  a  man,  and  not  a  pitiful  little  make- 
believe  like  yourself." 

"Oh,  I  say,  that  is  going  it  rather  strong,  isn't  it?" 
he  gasped,  between  anger  and  dismay ;  but  the  swish 
of  my  skirt  as  I  rose  and  swiftly  crossed  the  room  pre- 
vented me  from  hearing  more,  and  I  threw  so  much 
warmth  into  my  conversation  with  the  old  "  King  " — 
for  he  at  least  was  genuine,  and,  as  such,  a  mightily 
pleasing  contrast  to  his  discomfited  heir-apparent — 
that  Fred  looked  at  me  with  undisguised  astonishment, 
for  I  even  made  a  rash  promise  to  visit  Her  Majesty 
the  "  Queen  "  next  day.  Kindly  old  lady,  her  fat,  jolly 
personality,  her  small,  oil -stove  economies,  and  her 
gorgeous  red -and -gold  drawing-room  were  seen  in 
pleasing  perspective  when  one  had  in  the  foreground 
that  sallow,  misbegotten  little  horror,  with  his  long, 
fur  coat  and  diamond  solitaire  shirt-studs,  swaggering 
in  the  mud  of  his  father's  stock-yards,  or  posing  as 
a  drawing-room  hero  and  a  thorough-paced  Don  Juan ! 

For  the  next  few  days  we  had  many  invitations 
to  the  houses  of  some  charming  and  refined  people, 
who  gave  us  handsome  dinners  and  luncheons,  and 
also  one  dance  which  was  a  distinct  success.  I 

392 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

might,  indeed,  have  had  a  very  pleasant  time  if  for 
the  second  time  in  my  life  bona-fide  Heimiveh  had  not 
clutched  me  by  the  throat!  I  struggled  against  it 
with  all  my  might  and  main,  and  successfully  con- 
cealed my  feelings  from  Fred,  but,  do  what  I  would,  I 
could  not  help  seeing  that  big  Western  city,  though 
wrapped  in  its  glittering  winter  finery  of  ice  and  snow, 
through  a  black  pall  which  shut  out  every  possibility 
of  enjoyment. 

At  last  came  an  evening  when  Fred  and  I  returned 
from  a  soir6e  given  in  our  honor  at  the  house  of  a  great 
mine-owner.  During  the  long  drive  to  the  hotel  I  had 
not  spoken  a  word,  and  when  I  entered  our  apartments 
I  tore  off  my  ermine-lined  sortie-de-bal,  and,  throwing 
it  on  the  sofa,  determined  to  tell  Fred  then  and  there 
how  wretched  I  felt;  but  at  that  moment  the  door  I 
had  just  closed  suddenly  opened,  and  Bertrand,  whom 
I  thought  still  miles  and  miles  away,  stepped  in  quietly. 

At  the  sight  of  him  something  seemed  to  brutally 
break  the  iron  resolve  which  had  endured  until  then, 
and  with  a  for  once  in  a  way  thoroughly  and  lament- 
ably feminine  cry  of  distress,  I  flung  my  arms  about 
his  neck  and  burst  into  a  passion  of  tears. 

"For  mercy's  sake,  my  girl,  my  little  girlie!  You 
crying!  It  must  be  something  pretty  bad.  What  ails 
her,  Fred?  I  haven't  seen  her  do  a  thing  like  that 
since  she  was  twelve  years  old,"  he  exclaimed,  strok- 
ing my  bowed  head  tenderly. 

Fred,  greatly  alarmed,  was  already  imploring  me  to 
tell  him  what  had  happened,  but  I  am  ashamed  to  say 
that,  now  that  my  habitual  self-restraint  had  given  way, 
I  found  it  almost  impossible  not  to  continue  making 
a  fool  of  myself,  and  it  was  only  after  a  few  minutes' 
violent  struggle  that  it  became  possible  to  apologize  for 
this  absolutely  ridiculous  outbreak. 

393 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"That's  all  very  well/'  said  Fred,  decisively,  "but 
we  leave  to-morrow  night!  I'm  certainly  not  going  to 
have  you  made  miserable  if  I  can  help  it.  I  am  sorry, 
old  man,"  he  continued  to  Bertrand,  who,  thoroughly 
perturbed,  was  still  gently  stroking  my  hair,  "but  if 
you  are  desirous  of  lingering  in  this  city  you  will 
have  to  do  so  without  us." 

"Not  I!"  said  the  boy.  "I  am  going  back  with 
you,  you  may  be  sure.  I'll  just  run  down  to-morrow 
to  old  What's-his-name's  stock-yards  and  get  a  sniff 
at  them — which  ought  to  be  enough  if  all  Margot  wrote 
me  is  correct — and  then  I  shall  cheerfully  shake  the 
dust  of  my  sandals  upon  this  blessed  place.  Going 
to  bed?"  he  added,  as  I  turned  away  and  picked  up  my 
cloak.  "Jim's  outside,  longing  to  pay  his  respects. 
The  beggar  is  more  attached  to  you  even  than  to  me, 
and  spent  all  his  time  urging  me  to  leave  the  delights 
of  New  York  for  the  stormy  West.  Your  second  maid 
is,  of  course,  perfectly  safe  at  the  Windsor,  where  she 
is  lionized  by  several  other  kindred  spirits,  who,  hav- 
ing discovered  that  she  is  in  the  employ  of  a  genuine, 
hall-marked,  simon-pure  aristocrat,  are  giving  her  the 
time  of  her  life !  And  now  promise  us  not  to  fret  and 
to  be  a  good  girl!"  he  added,  opening  the  door  for 
me. 

I  was  so  abominably  mortified  that  I  spent  half  the 
night  pacing  the  floor  of  my  room,  smoking  innumer- 
able cigarettes,  and  cursing  the  momentary  weak- 
ness which  had  so  incomprehensibly  overwhelmed  me. 
What  could  there  be  in  Chicago  that  so  depressed  me? 
I  leave  this  riddle  to  be  guessed  by  cleverer  people  than 
myself. 

In  the  morning  I  made  a  round  of  farewell  visits, 
and  coming  back  to  a  late  lunch,  found  with  Bertrand 
in  the  sitting-room  no  other  personage  than  "Gentle- 

394 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

man  Sam/'  who  jumped  to  his  feet  as  I  entered  and 
turned  as  red  as  a  poppy. 

"Well,  I  am  glad  to  see  you/'  I  exclaimed,  coming 
forward  with  outstretched  hand.  "I  thought  that 
you  had  left  the  city  without  remembering  us." 

"What  did  I  tell  you?"  laughed  Bertrand,  clapping 
the  big  cow-boy  heartily  on  the  shoulder,  and  then, 
turning  to  me,  he  added,  "This  young  gentleman 
at  first  absolutely  refused  to  come  and  lunch,  because 
he  pretended  that  his  costume  was  unfit  for  a  lady's 
drawing-room ! ' ' 

"What  nonsense!"  I  said,  laughing.  "It  is  the  most 
picturesque  thing  in  the  wrorld,  especially  when  com- 
pared with  the  funereal  frock-coats  one  generally  en- 
counters at  such  functions,  and  here  comes  Fred  wear- 
ing one  of  them !  How  do  you  do,  Fred  ?  Please  ring 
the  bell  for  lunch.  We  are  all  hungry  this  cold  morn- 
ing." 

The  cow-boy  laughed.  "I  wish  you  wouldn't  'Mr. 

P n'  me,"  he  said,  with  another  bright  blush. 

"  I  am  plain  '  Sam '  to  everybody,  and  it  makes  me  feel 
foolish  to  be  addressed  otherwise.  It  is  a  very  good 
thing,"  he  added,  reflectively,  "that  I  don't  see  very 
much  of  you  people,  for  you'd  end  by  making  me 
dissatisfied  with  my  lot." 

"Don't  say  that,"  said  Bertrand.  "I  think,  on  the 
contrary,  that  life  out  on  the  plains  must  be  ideal  for  a 
healthy,  manly  chap  like  you.  I'd  not  ask  anything 
better  myself  than  to  join  you,  and  give  up,  once  and 
for  all,  all  this  inane  society  racket,  to  which  we  are 
bound  like  convicts  to  their  chains." 

"It's  a  pretty  hard  life,  in  spite  of  it  all,"  replied  the 
young  fellow,  with  a  smile.  "  I'm  no  milksop,  but  I  can 
tell  you  the  pace  which  we  have  to  keep  up  doesn't 
make  a  picnic  of  it.  It  looks  well  from  the  outside,  I 

395 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

dare  say,  and  what  one  reads  of  it  in  books  and  news- 
papers is  no  doubt  very  fine,  but  when  you  sift  it  right 
down  to  the  bed-rock  it's  quite  another  thing." 

"I  wouldn't  mind  trying  it,"  said  Bertrand,  excitedly. 
"  I've  seen  some  hard  service  myself  at  sea,  and  I  didn't 
dislike  it." 

"H-m,"  replied  the  cow-boy,  "I  don't  know  about 
that.  Don't  think  me  rude  or  presuming,  but  the  life 
of  an  officer  in  the  navy,  with  his  private  servant  at 
beck  and  call,  his  swell  state-room,  his  three  square 
meals  a  day,  and  the  good-will  of  his  superiors,  can, 
even  in  bad  weather,  be  no  patch  on  what  even  a 
ranch-owner  in  the  West  has  to  put  up  with." 

"Never  mind,  I'd  jolly  well  like  to  try  it,"  muttered 
Bertrand,  with  the  dogged  obstinacy  which  makes 
Bretons,  of  all  classes  and  types,  such  mules  to  deal 
with. 

I  caught  Fred's  eye,  realizing  that,  being  given  the 
rebellious  nature  of  the  boy  and  his  love  of  adventure, 
this  topic  was  about  as  dangerous  as  nitro-glycerine  in 
a  powder-mill,  and  well  aware  that  no  finessing  would 
serve  to  turn  the  conversation,  since  Bertrand  was 
evidently  eagerly  interested  in  it,  I  suddenly  stretched 
out  my  hand  to  reach  a  dish  of  olives,  and  overturned 
the  claret-jug  at  my  elbow  so  that  its  contents  splashed 
right  into  my  brother's  lap,  covering  his  light-gray 
morning-suit  with  a  ruddy  deluge. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,"  I  exclaimed,  in  apparent  dis- 
tress. "That's  too  bad,  you  poor  old  boy!" 

"Comes  from  wearing  so  much  lace  about  your 
sleeves,"  gravely  remarked  Fred,  with  a  faint  twinkle 
in  his  eye,  while  Bertrand,  laughing  good-naturedly, 
disappeared  into  the  next  room,  calling  loudly  for 
Jim. 

As  soon  as  the  door  had  closed  behind  him,  I  turned 

396 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

to  my  guest,  who  had  been  looking  amusedly  on,  and, 
putting  my  hand  on  his  rough  sleeve,  I  said,  quickly : 

"  My  dear  Mr.  P n,  I  want  you  to  do  me  a 

favor,  and  that  is  not  to  see  my  brother  again  after  you 
leave  here  to-day.  He  is  what  we  call  in  French  un 
peu  maboul,  which  means,  in  plain  English,  or  rather 
American,  a  little  cracked,  on  the  subject  of  adventures. 
He  is  also  an  only  son,  and  the  last  of  his  name,  which 
means  a  good  deal  in  Europe.  I  would,  therefore, 
never  forgive  myself  if,  through  our  fault,  he  should 
take  it  into  his  head  to  experiment  out  West  as  to  the 
extent  of  his  endurance." 

"I  guessed  as  much,"  said  "Gentleman  Sam," 
quietly,  "and  that's  why  I  spoke  as  I  did  about  our 
life,  which,  truth  to  tell,  is  not  a  bed  of  roses." 

"Yes,"  I  retorted,  "but  you  don't  know  the  boy. 
The  blacker  you  paint  the  prospect,  the  wilder  he  will 
be  to  have  a  try,  while,  if  you  remain  non-committal, 
he  will  immediately  realize  that  I  have  spoken  to  you 
on  the  subject,  and  that  is  why  I  beg  you  to  refrain 
from  mentioning  it  to  him.  He  will  be  back  in  a  mo- 
ment, so  please  give  me  your  address ;  so  that,  in  case 
of  necessity,  I  may  communicate  with  you." 

The  young  fellow  scribbled  his  name  and  that  of 
his  ranch  on  the  back  of  the  menu-card  before  him 
and  handed  it  to  me,  saying,  hurriedly,  for  Bertrand 
could  be  heard  returning,  "Trust  me,  I'll  do  my  best 
to  put  him  off  the  scent " ;  and  when  my  brother  re- 
entered  the  room  he  found  us  discussing  the  various 
adventures  which  we  had  gone  through  during  our 
stormy  trans-Atlantic  passage  with  a  placidity  which 
those  occurrences  hardly  seemed  to  warrant. 

Paul,  who  had  been  standing  behind  my  chair  when 
I  displayed  such  intelligent  clumsiness  as  to  the 
claret-jug,  had  swiftly  and  silently  repaired  the  dam- 

397 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

age,  and  therefore  Bertrand  could  resume  his  lunch 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  Seconded  by  Fred,  I 
kept  up  a  feu  roulant  of  jokes  and  anecdotes  which 
landed  us  smoothly  in  the  coffee-and-cigarette  stage, 
without  a  single  reference  to  cattle-ranches,  Western 
blizzards,  or  the  fascinating  adventures  of  the  plains. 
I  could  not  but  marvel  at  the  extraordinary  savoir- 
faire  of  that  strange  fellow,  "Gentleman  Sam, "for  his 
modest,  quiet,  well-bred  attitude,  and  especially  his 
clever  handling  of  a  situation  which  must  have  been 
entirely  new  to  him,  could  not  have  been  surpassed 
by  the  most  thorough-paced  of  diplomats. 

Such  surprises,  however,  are  common  in  America, 
where  sometimes  a  burly  'longshoreman,  a  bricklayer, 
or  a  car-conductor  will  display  an  innate  tact  and  a 
natural  breeding  which  one  would  seek  for  in  vain 
throughout  Europe  among  the  lower  middle  classes 
or  bourgeois  element.  I  am  not  prepared  to  explain 
this,  of  course,  for  it  is  unexplainable,  but  I  am  quite 
ready  to  stand  by  what  I  say,  and  to  declare  that  dur- 
ing my  long  sojourn  in  America  I  have  been  shown 
more  real  courtesy  and  politesse  du  coeur  by  what 
is  generally  termed  the  "lower  orders"  than  by  any- 
body save  people  of  my  own  class,  anywhere  else  in 
the  world. 

Indeed,  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  judge,  the  only 
objectionable  classes  in  America  are  the  nouveaux 
riches  and  the  wealthy  seekers  of  newspaper  notoriety, 
who,  like  their  European  kindred,  are  purse-proud,  over- 
bearing, and  bumptious.  Taking  as  models  the  con- 
tinental so-called  "smart  set,"  they  remind  one  irre- 
sistibly of  the  frog  who  tried  to  blow  himself  up  to 
the  size  of  an  ox.  Neither  the  process  nor  the  model 
is  attractive,  and  the  result  is  beyond  all  description 
^displeasing,  for  these  paltry  imitators  have  not  even 

398 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

the  superficial  knowledge  of  the  world  and  the  glib 
facility  acquired  by  generations  of  "smart"  people, 
but  allow  their  own  vulgar  natures  to  protrude  through 
the  disguise  at  every  seam,  and  tempt  one  to  the 
rather  crude  retort  which  one  day,  when  thoroughly 
exasperated,  I  made  to  a  well-known  millionaire,  who 
was  tapping  his  chest  and  boasting  of  being  "self- 
made  " : 

"  What  you  say  might  be  good  as  an  excuse,  but  it 
does  not  entitle  you  to  much  admiration." 

In  America,  where  distinctions  of  rank  and  title  are 
lacking,  it  is  even  more  true  than  in  Europe  that  the 
best  people  are  the  quiet  and  unassuming.  Between 
your  nouveaux  riches,  trying  to  get  "  in  the  swim,"  and 
the  noisy,  newspaper-notoriety-hunting  "  upper-crust/' 
who  are  attempting  to  keep  them  out,  or  dickering  as 
to  the  terms  upon  which  they  can  be  admitted,  is  a 
class  of  people  who  pursue  the  even  tenor  of  their  way 
without  regard  to  the  great  dailies,  some  wealthy,  some 
not,  some  out  of  mere  self-respect  and  natural  percep- 
tion of  the  fitness  of  things,  others  with  an  additional 
confidence  bred  of  the  long  possession  of  name  and 
status. 

But  to  return  to  our  muttons — or  rather  to  our  cattle- 
man. Half  an  hour  after  lunch  "Gentleman  Sam," 
picking  up  his  wide  -  brimmed,  silver  -  strapped  som- 
brero, rose  to  take  his  leave. 

"I  have  to  thank  you,"  he  said,  "for  the  pleasantest 
hours  I  have  ever  spent,  and  also  for  the  kindness  which 
made  you  treat  me  as  one  of  yourselves."  Then, 
blushing  violently,  as  was  his  wont,  he,  much  to  my 
astonishment,  raised  my  hand  to  his  lips,  adding,  a 
little  shamefacedly,  "It  takes  thoroughbreds  to  do 
what  you  have  done.  I  know  thoroughbreds  when  I 
meet  them." 

399 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Wait  a  minute,  old  fellow,  I  am  going  with  you," 
exclaimed  Bertrand.  "I'd  like  to  have  a  little  talk 
before  I  say  good-bye." 

"Don't  do  that,  sir!  Young  John,  the  boss's  nice 
little  son,  has  appointed  to  meet  me  at  the  next  bar- 
room, and  he  is  a  pretty  poisonous  lad,  let  me  tell  you. 
I  think  he  only  means  to  watch  me,  for  he  has  been 
awfully  cut  up  by  the  way  you  people  treated  me, 
and  if  we  were  to  walk  out  of  here  together  it  would  be 
as  much  as  my  job  is  worth.  As  it  is,"  he  concluded, 
with  a  somewhat  bitter  smile,  "I  wish  I  could  find 
something  else  to  do,  for  I  don't  fancy  their  way  with 
me  particularly." 

Fortunately,  Bertrand  was  lighting  a  cigarette,  or 
else  he  could  not  have  failed  to  notice  the  look  of  par- 
faite  entente  which  "Gentleman  Sam"  exchanged  with 
me.  "If  I  can  possibly  manage  it,  and  I  think  I'll  be 
able  to,  I  will  come  to  the  depot  to  bid  you  good-bye 
again  to-night;  and,  of  course,  I  am  entirely  at  your 
service  for  anything  you  want  to  know  from  now  on 
till  doomsday." 

"All  right,  give  me  your  address;  I'll  write  to  you." 

"My  address?  Ah,  yes!"  and  with  the  utmost  cool- 
ness this  singular  cattleman  dictated  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent one  from  that  he  had  inscribed  on  the  back  of 
the  menu-card.  Then  he  shook  hands  again  all  round, 
and  was  gone. 

"Good  boy,  that,  very,"  said  Fred,  appreciatively. 
"I  like  his  looks  and  ways." 

"I  should  rather  think  so!  He  is  the  incarnation  of 
clean-bred  strength,  morally  and  physically,"  I  replied, 
"  and  one  can  pass  no  higher  eulogium  upon  any  man." 

That  night  we  left  Chicago  behind  us,  and  it  was 
with  a  sigh  of  relief  that  I  saw  the  big  city  disappear 
in  a  drifting  cloud  of  snow. 

400 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

For  a  few  weeks  more  we  were  continually  on  the 
wing,  visiting  various  cities,  and  combining  the  affairs 
which  had  compelled  us  to  cross  the  water  with  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  pleasure,  finally  arriving  once 
more  in  New  York  a  week  before  the  date — now  three 
times  postponed — set  for  our  return  to  Europe.  With 
our  tickets  already  purchased — this  time  on  a  popular 
Cunarder — we  made  an  interminable  round  of  farewell 
visits.  Indeed,  we  felt  sorry  to  leave  all  the  good 
friends  we  had  made,  for  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  have  been  received  more  kindly  or  made,  in  every 
sense  of  the  word,  more  welcome  than  we  had  been ; 
and  New  York,  in  its  early  spring  freshness,  was  doing 
its  best  to  give  us  a  last  impression,  far  more  pleasing 
than  any  previously  received. 

On  the  day  before  our  proposed  departure  a  cable- 
gram was  brought  to  me,  which  read  as  follows: 

"  Do  not  start.  Await  next  mail.  Important  news.  Further 
instructions." 

Fred  was  out,  and  so  I  sought  out  Bertrand,  whom  I 
found  dancing  about  his  room,  dumb-bells  in  hand, 
as  was  his  custom  of  a  morning,  and  singing: 

"  D  y  a  rien  d'faraud 
Comme  un  matelot 
Qu'a  Iav6  sa  peau 
Dans  cinq  ou  six  eaux." 

"Look  here,  old  man/'  I  said,  in  some  perturbation, 
handing  him  the  despatch,  "what  can  this  mean?" 

"Oh,  some  fool  trick  or  other,"  he  said,  carelessly, 
in  his  recently  acquired  American  slang. 

"  Fool  trick  1"  I  repeated.  "  A  nice  way  of  putting  it, 
and  very  reassuring,  too.  I  wonder  what  Fred  will 
say!" 


CHAPTER    IX 

At  birth  ye  meet  yer  Fortune, 

An'  findin'  her  the  same 
Fer  many  years,  ye  think  her 

A  motherly  old  dame; 
But  once  ye  get  at  odds  with  her 

Ye'll  find,  my  lad,  I  fear, 
The  lady's  still  got  teeth  enough 

To  come  and  chew  yer  ear. 

Ye're  on  good  terms  with  Fortune, 

Ye  dally  with  her  wheel, 
An'  laugh  to  think  that  ever  it 

Could  scrunch  ye  till  ye  squeal, 
Or  that  yer  smilin'  goddess 

Could  pet  yer  till  ye're  blind, 
And  then  sneak  round  and  lift  yer 

With  a  healthy  kick  behind. 

M.  M. 

MY  disappointment  at  having  to  delay  our  departure 
again  was  deep.  We  had  all  had  a  much  better  and 
pleasanter  time  than  we  had  anticipated,  as  I  have  al- 
ready remarked,  and  had  received  such  hospitality  and 
kindness  that  it  would  have  been  difficult,  indeed,  to 
find  fault  with  either  the  country  or  its  inhabitants; 
but  still  my  eyes  were  aching  for  a  sight  of  home,  and 
I  fretted  a  good  deal  at  the  new  postponement  to  which 
we  were  forced  to  submit. 

"Dashed  nasty  trick  to  play  us!"  said  Bertrand, 
when  he  came  to  fetch  me  for  a  drive  in  the  park 
that  afternoon.  "What  do  they  mean  by  it?  I  won- 
der what  misfortune  is  in  the  wind  now!" 

402 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"My  dear  boy,  don't  talk  like  that;  you  make  me 
feel  queer!  It's  silly  to  paint  the  devil  on  the  wall!"  I 
said,  sharply. 

"  By  Gad,  I  wish  I  were  a  week  older ;  I  don't  know 
why,  but  I  have  a  nasty  feeling  about  the  whole  thing ! 
I  wonder  if  there  is  not  another  cable  explaining  mat- 
ters a  little  more  clearly,"  the  lad  continued,  jumping  up 
and  walking  about  excitedly ;  then,  opening  a  door,  he 
bawled,  "  Jim,  Ji-i-i-m,  Ji-i-i-ml"  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 

In  a  moment  Jim  made  his  appearance,  wearing  a 
rather  severe  and  injured  expression. 

"  Did  you  call,  my  lord?" 

"No;  I  was  only  talking  in  my  sleep!  But  since 
you  are  here  accidentally,  go  down  and  see  if  there 
is  not  a  cablegram  in  the  office  for  her  ladyship." 

"Oh,  Bertrand!"  I  exclaimed,  as  soon  as  poor  Jim 
had  gone;  "how  can  you  be  so  foolish?  You  know 
very  well  that  we  are  to  'await  letters.'  Those  are 
the  instructions." 

"Gam!  I  wish  I  knew  what  it's  all  about — I  would 
give-" 

The  sentence  was  never  finished,  for  Jim  at  that 
moment  re-entered  and  reported,  with  an  aggrieved 
air,  that  there  was  nothing  even  faintly  resembling  a 
cablegram  for  me  in  the  office. 

"Don't  get  discouraged,  Jim!"  his  young  master 
exclaimed.  "  Don't  lose  heart !  Go  down  every  hour, 
and,  like  Bruce's  spider,  try,  try  again!" 

"How  many  times  did  Bruce's  spider  'try,  try 
again'?"  I  inquired,  gravely,  while  Jim,  evidently 
convinced  of  Bertrand's  temporary  insanity,  took  him- 
self off  with  celerity  and  despatch. 

"I  don't  remember,  for  certain;  three  or  four  thou- 
sand times,  I  believe ;  anyhow,  it's  always  wiser  to  be 
on  the  safe  side,  so  I  mean  to  keep  Jim  at  it,  day  and 

403 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

night,  until  those  cursed  letters  arrive.  Hooroop! 
it's  four  o'clock,  and  the  carriage  has  been  waiting 
an  hour  in  the  east  wind !  Hurry  up,  my  good  girl,  or 
the  horses  will  die  of  chilblains,  and  we'll  have  to  pay 
for  them!" 

"  Really,  Bertrand,  your  choice  of  expletives  is  quite 
remarkable.  May  I  inquire  what '  garn '  and  '  hooroop ' 
mean?" 

"  Can't  tell  you ;  it's  a  family  secret ;  but  if  you  have 
heard  my  suggestion  about  hurrying,  can  you  tell  me 
how  the  idea  strikes  you?" 

"On  the  whole,"  I  replied,  after  a  minute's  reflection, 
"your  idea  strikes  me  as  rather — sound." 

"  Shall  you  then  do  me  the  favor  of  acting  according- 
ly?" 

"It  seems  the  only  thing  to  do/'  I  answered,  with 
business-like  promptitude,  "  although  it's  rather  a  nui- 
sance 1"  And  dropping  him  a  low  courtesy  I  went  in 
search  of  my  furs,  followed  by  a  roar  of  laughter  from 
that  light-hearted  pessimist. 

Somehow  or  other,  nevertheless,  his  words  rankled 
in  my  mind,  and  I  became  anxious  and  unsettled,  al- 
though I  took  myself  severely  to  task  for  it,  and  did 
not  allow  either  him  or  Fred  to  perceive  my  unusual 
mood.  The  days  dragged  on  in  a  very  trying  fashion ; 
a  haunting  presage  of  disaster  sat  heavy  on  me,  and 
whenever  I  was  alone  I  brooded  sombrely  upon  the 
future  for  the  very  first  time  in  my  life.  These  vague 
forebodings  grew  quite  intolerable,  and  in  order  to  con- 
ceal them  I  adopted  so  gay  and  merry  an  attitude  that 
both  Fred  and  Bertrand  caught  the  infection  of  my 
exuberant  mirth  and  laughed  from  morning  till  night 
At  last,  one  day — that  when  the  European  mail  was 
expected — I  returned  from  a  walk  in  the  park,  and  met 
Jim  at  the  door  of  the  lift,  carrying  in  his  hand  a  batch 

404 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

of  letters  .and  newspapers.  My  heart  stood  suddenly 
still,  and  taking  them  from  him  I  paused  a  moment — 
half  fearing  to  enter  the  sitting-room,  where  the  boys 
were  awaiting  me  with  afternoon  tea.  Then,  stepping 
forward,  I  thrust  the  door  open  with  my  foot,  exclaim- 
ing, cheerfully : 

"Here,  at  last,  is  the  answer  to  the  riddle  I" 

They  both  started  to  their  feet.  Selecting  one  of  the 
envelopes,  I  threw  the  rest  on  the  table  with  a  smile, 
and  inserted  a  finger  under  the  flap.  While  the  closely 
written  sheets  were  before  my  eyes  there  was  a  peculiar 
and  oppressive  silence  in  the  room,  broken  only  by  the 
"pfft-pfft"  of  the  crackling  logs  on  the  hearth  and  the 
low,  monotonous  hum  of  the  tea-urn. 

Slowly  and  carefully  I  read,  undergoing  a  shock 
disabling  for  a  fleeting  moment,  but  bracing  beyond 
words  immediately  afterwards,  for  here,  at  last,  was 
something  tangible,  and  all  the  brooding  and  the  dull, 
vague,  aching  apprehension  of  the  previous  days  passed 
from  me  as  suddenly  and  completely  as  if  dispersed 
at  a  blow.  Thank  God,  I  knew  myself  now  to  be 
strung  up  again  to  my  ordinary  pitch,  and  by  a  flash 
of  intuition,  unerring  and  instantaneous,  saw  precise- 
ly what  tone  I  should  adopt,  and  how  I  should  an- 
nounce my  news. 

I  folded  up  the  letter. 

"Fred,"  I  said,  with  a  good -humor  too  grim  for 
smiles,  "it's  your  turn  to  'stand  by,'  old  boy.  Listen 
carefully,  please.  My  banker  has  committed  suicide, 
after  making  away  with  every  shilling  of  all  the  funds 
in  his  possession,  including  mine.  I  am  for  the  present 
just  as  penniless  as  yourself,  save  for  some  practically 
unproductive  lands  which,  as  you  know,  I  cannot  alien- 
ate, but  the  situation  is  not  surely  without  humor,  if  you 
will  only  take  the  trouble  to  look  at  it  in  the  proper  light" 

405 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Fred  stared ;  his  face  was  the  color  of  ashes.  I  knew 
that  a  bad  moment  had  come,  and  set  my  teeth. 

For  several  minutes  there  was  a  silence  that  was 
almost  palpable;  then  Bertrand  gave  a  low  whistle. 

"Look  here,  my  dear  boys,"  I  said,  methodically 
replacing  the  fateful  missive  in  its  envelope,  "I  don't 
see  that  there  is  any  use  in  worrying  just  now.  Such 
strong  meat  demands  time  for  digestion,  and,  more- 
over, recriminations  or  complaints  will  not  mend  mat- 
ters. Consider  how  fortunate  it  is  that  this  blow  should 
have  fallen  upon  us  while  we  are  on  this  side  of  the 
water.  Had  it  happened  in  Europe,  or  Egypt,  every- 
body would  have  been  bound  to  hear  about  it,  and  we 
would  have  been  subjected  to  the  pity  of  our  friends, 
and  exasperated  by  the  malicious  and  covert  rejoic- 
ing of  our  enemies.  But  here  we  need  not  speak  of 
this  contretemps,  and  if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst, 
and  we  find  this  letter  is  correct  in  every  detail,  it  is 
the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  drop  out  of  sight 
and  work  for  our  living  without  anybody  being  the 
wiser." 

"You  are  extremely  philosophic.  Imagine  talking 
of  the  loss  of  practically  all  that  you  possess  as  a  contre- 
temps!" said  Fred,  with  a  groan. 

"I  am  sorry  if  you  don't  agree  with  me.  It  is  the 
first  time  such  a  thing  has  happened,"  I  replied,  as  if 
the  matter  in  hand  were  but  of  slight  importance. 

"Then  we  must  agree  to  disagree  in  this  instance." 

"Oh,  come,"  interposed  Bertrand,  "you  are  not 
going  to  quarrel,  are  you?  And  as  to  you,  Margot,  I 
am  as  proud  of  you  as  proud  can  be.  You  are  a  brick, 
with  the  heart  of  a  lion  and  the  face  of  a  flower." 

I  could  not  help  bursting  out  laughing.  The  com- 
pliment was  so  original  and  so  characteristic.  Even 
Fred  melted  a  little,  and  I  gained  my  point,  which  was 

406 


A    DOFFED-  CORONET 

to  make  him  promise  not  to  refer  to  the  subject  any 
more  that  night. 

For  the  moment  there  was  nothing  better  to  do  than 
adhere  to  our  immediate  engagements,  so  we  went 
to  a  dinner  given  in  our  honor  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W. 
W f  A  .  .  .  r,  where  we  met  some  very  charm- 
ing people,  and  had  a  far  less  miserable  evening  than 
might  have  been  expected  under  the  circumstances. 

The  next  day  we  sent  several  cables  to  Europe  in 
order  to  find  out  whether  our  case  was  as  bad  as  the  let- 
ter which  had  so  completely  overthrown  all  our  plans 
indicated.  Alas !  The  answers  confirmed  the  worst,  and 
there  remained  nothing  for  us  to  do  but  face  the  music. 

We  determined  to  tell  all  our  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances that  we  were  leaving  America  via  Boston, 
so  as  to  avoid  any  proposal  of  escorting  us  to  the 
steamer.  This  left  us  a  week  to  pack  up  and  find 
quarters  where  we  could  lie  low,  for  no  other  solution 
to  the  problem  had  presented  itself  than  to  remain  for 
the  present  in  the  United  States.  It  goes  without  say- 
ing that  nothing  could  have  induced  us  to  carry  our 
woes  to  anybody  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  with 
touching  ignorance  we  fondly  supposed  that  to  earn 
one's  living  was  the  easiest  thing  imaginable. 

In  the  afternoon  I  went  alone  for  a  walk  in  Central 
Park,  leaving  the  boys  free  to  go  to  one  or  all  of  the 
many  clubs  of  which  they  had  been  made  honorary 
members  during  our  stay.  The  sky  was  overcast, 
the  young  green  of  the  lawns  was  dimmed  with  dust, 
and  from  time  to  time  a  puff  of  wind  stirred  the  new- 
leaved  branches  of  the  trees.  It  was  not  a  day  to 
cheer  one  much,  but  still  the  exercise  was  bracing,  after 
a  fashion,  and  did  me  good.  For  an  hour  and  a  half  I 
paced  up  and  down  a  deserted  path,  meeting  nothing 
but  an  occasional  whirl  of  last  year's  leaves  waltzing 

407 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

past.  Truly,  my  thoughts  were  not  less  scattered 
and  confused  than  they! 

One  of  the  salient  facts  of  my  misfortune  that  occur- 
red and  recurred  to  me  with  mocking  persistence  was 

that  Sir  B sD n  and  Mahmoud  Bey  were 

now  beyond  my  reach.  Hitherto  it  had  been  a  satis- 
faction to  think  that  the  measure  they  had  meted — 
not  to  me,  but  to  mine — I  could  measure  to  them  again, 
grain  for  grain,  and  now  that  it  was  no  longer  in  my 
power  to  do  so,  I  felt  distinctly  robbed  of  something. 
Disapprove,  all  good  Christians,  an  ye  will! 

I  cannot  say  that  I  was  either  sad  or  unhappy,  but  I 
felt  a  sort  of  mental  fatigue,  as  if  my  brain  had  been 
violently  bruised.  I  dreaded  horribly  having  to  tell 
my  servants  that  it  had  become  imperative  for  me  to 
part  with  them,  as  all  three  had  now  been  with  me  for 
nearly  ten  years,  and  I  knew — judging  by  myself — 
what  a  wrench  this  would  prove  to  be  for  them. 

"Why  is  the  world  such  a  topsy-turvy  place?"  I 
asked  of  a  passing  crow,  and  for  an  answer  received  a 
dismal  croak,  as  the  bird  flew  heedlessly  on,  balancing 
on  its  sombre  pinions. 

I  wished  I  could  have  soared,  too,  beyond  that  dull, 
gray  sky,  instead  of  crawling  on  earth  like  a  snail. 

"  Viva  la  Chiocciola 
Viva  la  Bestial 
Che  unisce  il  merito 
Alia  modestial"* 

I  caught  myself  humming  with  contrition,  for  I  could 
not  help  thinking  that  should  I  fail  to  weather  the 
storm  as  it  should  be  weathered,  even  that  hum- 
ble little  snail  would  be  far  superior  to  me.  Before 

*  Long  live  the  snail,  long  live  the  beast,  which  combines  merit 
with  modesty. 

408 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

reaching  the  hotel  I  had  determined  not  to  talk  to  the 
servants  until  the  very  last,  and  thus  relieved  myself 
for  the  time  being  of  at  least  one  painful  thought. 

On  the  next  day  I  sallied  forth  bright  and  early 
to  seek,  with  Bertrand's  help,  a  shelter  of  some  kind 
or  other,  for  I  could  not  bring  myself  yet  to  look  upon 
a  cheap  dwelling  as  a  home. 

I  am  sorry  that  space  and  time  fail  me  to  give  at 
least  a  short  description  of  our  weary  peregrinations 
through  New  York,  for  they  were  certainly  carried 
on  in  the  spirit  of  unconventionality  and  guilelessness 
which  just  then  was  inspiring  our  smallest  actions! 
But  I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  devoting  a  few 
short  lines  to  our  first  ridiculous  experience  in  habita- 
tion hunting. 

Taking  a  hansom,  we  started  on  our  quest  with 
hopeful  hearts.  It  was  blowing  a  regular  gale,  and 
the  wind  whistled  through  the  streets  and  across  the 
avenues  with  a  very  unseasonable,  shrieking  sound, 
whirling  the  dust  high  up  in  the  air  and  driving  the 
foot-passengers  along  the  sidewalks  to  the  flapping 
accompaniment  of  distraught  millinery  and  collapsing 
umbrellas.  Distant  thunder  growled  at  intervals,  and 
great,  bulging  clouds  of  dark,  purplish  gray  advanced 
rapidly  from  the  east,  cleft  now  and  again  by  vivid 
flashes  of  lightning. 

On  Madison  Avenue,  the  storm  having  abated,  we 
stopped  our  hansom  and  resolved  to  walk,  looking,  as 
we  went,  for  possible  placards  in  the  windows  announ- 
cing that  there  were  apartments  to  let.  But  we  saw 
nothing  of  the  kind,  and  it  suddenly  occurred  to  us 
that,  en  attendant  mieux,  we  could  not  do  better  than 
to  retain  rooms  at  some  good  boarding-house  or  other, 
if  such  a  thing  existed!  I  had  an  instinctive  dread  of 
such  establishments,  but  I  thought  that,  after  all,  beg- 

409 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

gars  could  not  be  choosers,  and  accosting  a  postman 
who,  laden  with  mail,  was  descending  the  steps  of  a  big, 
brown-stone  house,  I  asked  him  to  tell  me  where  the  best 
place  of  that  kind  could  be  found.  He  looked  at  me  with 
undisguised  surprise,  and,  it  seemed  to  me,  with  a  vague 
suggestion  of  contempt;  but  as  there  was  certainly 
nothing  offensive  in  my  request,  I  was  about  to  repeat 
it,  when  he  said,  with  a  shrug  of  his  broad  shoulders : 

"Here,  on  the  next  corner,  you  will  find  the  very 
best  one  in  New  York  City,  and  good  luck  to  you,  my 
fine  madame!" 

Fortunately,  Bertrand,  who  had  lagged  a  few  steps 
behind  to  look  down  a  side  street  in  the  hope  of  dis- 
covering some  indication  of  "  desirable  rooms,"  did  not 
hear  this  absurd  and  insolent  remark,  which  he  would 
have  resented,  very  much  to  the  detriment  of  the  per- 
petrator thereof ;  so,  contenting  myself  with  communi- 
cating, minus  its  frills,  the  information  which  I  had 
obtained,  we  directed  our  steps  to  the  fine  corner  house 
indicated.  We  walked  briskly  up  the  steps  and  rang 
the  bell.  The  door  was  almost  immediately  opened  by 
a  tall  footman  wearing  a  gorgeous  livery. 

"Do  you  happen  to  know  whether  I  can  get  rooms 
here?"  I  said,  doubtingly,  for  the  large  hall,  decorated 
with  immense  palms  and  gaudily  furnished  in  red 
damask  and  much  gilding,  hardly  looked  what  I  had 
fancied  the  entrance  of  a  boarding-house  to  be. 

"Yes,  miss,  I  think  you  can;  but  you  had  best  see 
the  madame." 

"All  right,"  I  replied.  "Will  you  ask  her  to  receive 
me?" 

"Certainly,  miss,"  he  said,  bowing  and  ushering  us 
into  a  huge  drawing-room  hung  with  turquoise-blue 
plush  and  so  overloaded  with  dazzling  ornaments, 
pictures,  statuary,  and  bric-a-brac  of  questionable 

410 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

taste  that  I  almost  called  him  back,  having  taken 
an  instant  dislike  to  it.  The  windows  were  draped 
with  triple  curtains  of  tulle,  lace,  and  finally  of  heavy 
brocade ;  the  vast  carpet  covering  the  floor  was  vulgar 
in  design,  but  evidently  exceedingly  costly,  and  on 
the  walls  there  were  an  alarming  number  of  pictures, 
which,  to  say  the  very  least,  belonged  to  a  school  not 
distinguished  for  pruderie. 

"What  a  singular  room!"  I  remarked,  taking  a  few 
steps  to  examine  a  group  in  bronze  representing  a 
satyr  surrounded  by  gambolling  nymphs. 

"  H-m-m-m-m — yes — rather ;  I  do  not  think  much  of 
it,"  replied  Bertrand ;  "  perhaps  we  had  better  go  away." 

"It's  too  late  now,"  I  whispered,  hurriedly,  for  the 
rustle  of  a  trailing  skirt  warned  me  that  the  "madame," 
whoever  she  might  be,  was  approaching.  In  came  a 
tall,  stately  woman,  with  a  beautiful  figure,  a  cameo- 
like  face,  large,  mild,  blue  eyes,  and  silvery  hair  rolled 
artistically  back  from  her  smooth  forehead.  Her  attire 
was  entirely  black,  but  of  astonishing  magnificence, 
and  in  her  ears  sparkled  two  immense  solitaires  of  the 
finest  water.  She  inclined  her  head  in  right  queenly 
fashion,  and  waving  us  towards  a  sofa,  sank  grace- 
fully upon  a  sort  of  throne  upholstered  in  blue-and- 
gold  brocade. 

"I  understand  that  you  would  like  to  look  at  my 
rooms,"  she  drawled,  twirling  her  numerous  rings 
upon  her  white  fingers,  as  she  spoke,  with  studied 
negligence. 

"That  is  what  I  came  here  for,"  I  retorted,  a  little 
impatiently,  for  these  airs  and  graces  were,  in  my  opin- 
ion, quite  unseemly  in  a  person  of  her  humble  calling. 

"If  you  like  we  will  walk  up-stairs  at  once,"  she 
said,  rising  with  an  impressive  swish  of  her  long,  jet- 
broidered  train. 

411 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Up  a  broad,  low-stepped  staircase  we  marched,  to 
the  accompaniment  of  the  distant  strains  of  a  piano, 
played  by  a  distinctly  untutored  hand,  and  were  sol- 
emnly preceded  by  "madame"  into  a  bedroom  of  the 
most  luxurious,  not  to  say  extravagant,  description. 
There  were  mirrors  everywhere — between  the  windows, 
over  the  fireplace,  on  the  ceiling,  and,  dear  me !  even  at 
the  back  of  the  bed,  which  looked  as  if  it  were  made  of 
solid  gold.  Both  draperies  and  carpet  were  ineffably 
pink,  and  through  an  open  door  a  bath-room  of  white 
marble,  with  yet  more  mirrors,  invited  the  onlooker  to 
take  an  immediate  plunge. 

"This  is  one  of  my  nicest  suites,"  said  the  lady  of 
this  wonderful  establishment,  with  a  complacent,  cir- 
cular look,  "  and  as  summer  is  coming  on  I  can  let  you 
have  it  cheaply,  as  such  rooms  go.  Of  course,  you  know 
that  champagne  is  five  dollars  a  bottle?" 

"Champagne!"  I  gasped,  completely  taken  back  by 
this  incomprehensible  statement. 

At  that  moment  I  felt  that  Bertrand  was  trying  to  at- 
tract my  attention  by  pulling  the  ends  of  my  sash,  but 
thinking  that  he  merely  wished  to  caution  me  against 
possible  extortion,  I  heeded  him  not,  and  said,  quietly : 

"  I  never  drink  champagne,  so  the  price  does  not  mat- 
ter to  me,  but  I  would  like  to  know  how  many  rooms 
you  have,  for  three  is  the  least  number  I  shall  require." 

"Why  three?"  demanded  the  queenly  one. 

"One  for  myself,  one  for  my  husband,  and  one  for 
my  brother,  here,"  I  replied,  carelessly,  indicating 
Bertrand,  who,  much  to  my  surprise,  was  as  red  as  a 
poppy  and  fidgeted  from  one  foot  to  the  other  in  the 
most  unaccountable  way. 

"Your  husband!  your  brother!"  The  until  then 
carefully  modulated  voice  almost  rose  to  a  shriek. 
"Where  do  you  think  you  are?" 

412 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

"  In  a  boarding-house,  of  course — a  very  superb  one," 
I  added,  with  conciliatory  emphasis. 

Here  Bertrand,  with  a  hasty  and  nearly  inarticulate 
apology,  fairly  dragged  me  from  the  beautiful  room, 
leaving  the  owner  thereof  apparently  sunk  in  stupor, 
for  she  gazed  after  us  without  lifting  a  finger  to  detain 
us.  her  hands  sunk  to  her  side,  and  her  haughty  head 
inclined  towards  her  portly  bosom.  As  I  descended, 
following  Bertrand  passively  in  my  surprise  at  this 
sudden  turn  of  events,  several  pretty  heads,  surmounted 
by  remarkably  coquettish  coiffures,  appeared  at  half- 
open  doors  and  scrutinized  us  curiously.  At  last  we 
reached  the  sidewalk. 

"Oh,  Lord!"  exclaimed  poor  Bertrand,  mopping  the 
sweat  from  his  brow.  "I  pray  God  that  nobody  has 
seen  us  go  in  or  out!"  . 


The  last  days  at  the  Windsor  were  busy  ones,  leaving 
really  no  scope  for  moping  or  repining,  for  we  had  dis- 
covered that  rara  avis,  an  apartment  almost  comfort- 
ably furnished  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars 
a  month  (which  to  our  innocence  seemed  the  acme  >f 
economy),  and  were  having  it  set  in  order.  As  luck 
would  have  it,  the  weather  was  so  unseasonably  hot  that 
all  the  fashionable  people  were  hurrying  to  the  coun- 
try or  the  sea-side  for  relief,  so  that  the  danger  of  en- 
countering friends  or  acquaintances  was  steadily  de- 
creasing. I  was  sincerely  amused  by  the  polite  regrets 
expressed  on  all  sides  because  we  would  not  delay  our 
departure  in  order  to  accept  invitations  to  Newport. 
A  fine  figure  we  would  have  cut  there  now,  forsooth! 
Such  a  picture  completely  dislocated  my  ideas. 

At  last  our  trunks  were  packed  and  ready  to  be  sent 

413 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

to  the  Grand  Central  Station  "en  route  for  Boston" — 
really,  to  be  left  there  till  called  for.  Our  adieus  were 
said,  our  last  largesses  distributed !  "  Vogue  la  ga- 
lere  I"  We  were  going  full  steam  ahead  towards  the 
uncertain  future  which  lay  so  hazily  before  us,  and  we 
said,  like  the  Breton  fisher-folk : 

"  Que  Dieu  nous  garde,  car  la  mer  est  grande  et  noire 
barque  est  petite." 

I  suppose  the  blow  was  a  hard  one,  but  as  yet,  at  any 
rate,  we  did  not  seem  to  realize  it,  nor  how  singularly 
unsuited  we  were  for  an  existence  of  privations  and 
poverty.  On  the  last  night  at  the  hotel  I  glanced 
around  the  room  and  laughed!  Hot-house  lilies  and 
delicate  orchids  blossomed  on  every  table,  and  in  front 
of  a  mirror  the  many  pieces  of  my  toilet-set  made  a 
litter  of  gold,  with  gemmed  monograms  and  coronets 
catching  the  rays  of  the  silk-shaded  lamps;  while  in 
the  mirror  itself  I  saw  my  white-clad  reflection,  dia- 
monds and  pearls  coiled  about  my  neck,  nestling  in 
my  hair,  and  glittering  on  my  fingers  and  arms,  with 
here  and  there,  as  a  relief  to  their  white  sparkle,  the 
tinted  gleam  of  a  ruby  or  sapphire. 

I  had  done  very  well  since  my  arrival  in  America, 
with  only  three  servants  in  my  train,  and  I  felt  certain 
that  to  do  altogether  without  them  would  be  no  great 
hardship.  To  be  sure,  I  had  never  drawn  on  my  own 
stockings,  nor  put  up  my  own  hair,  but  it  would  not  be 
so  difficult  to  try,  and  also  to  succeed.  And  what  pretty 
little  dresses  one  could  order  in  the  name  of  economy — 
dainty  French  muslins  in  pinks  and  whites  and  pale 
lilacs — cheap  they  must  be,  although  my  past  experi- 
ence of  brown  holland  and  white  duck  when  handled  by 
my  couturier,  or  by  Morgan  in  the  case  of  yachting- 
suits,  had  caused  me  sometimes  to  reflect,  en  passant, 
upon  the  astonishing  costliness  of  linen  and  cotton 

414 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

materials !  Again  I  laughed  gleefully.  What  fun  the 
whole  thing  was  just  then,  thanks  to  its  novelty,  and 
also  to  my  pathetic  and  total  inexperience  of  such  mat- 
ters! I  did  not  feel  at  all  heroic,  but  amiably  philo- 
sophical, and  the  sordid  vulgarity  of  res  angusta  domi 
was  to  me  so  completely  a  closed  book  that  I  contem- 
plated my  descent  from  a  throne  of  elegance,  position, 
and  excessive  luxury  as  a  graceful  sort  of  performance 
not  at  all  devoid  of  humorous  and  interesting  features. 
The  thought  of  continuing  my  dolce-far-niente  life  at 
the  expense  of  my  relatives  was  far  more  ghastly  to 
me  than  a  near  prospect  of  pulse  and  water  as  a  steady 
diet  for  the  rest  of  my  existence,  and  I  never  for  an  in- 
stant entertained,  thank  God !  the  idea  of  passing  under 
the  family  yoke  or  of  acknowledging  myself  beaten; 
moreover,  I  knew  enough  of  the  world  to  realize  the 
strength  and  truth  of  the  lines  which  say : 

"  Si  vous  6tes  dans  la  d6tresse, 

Oh,  mes  amis,  cachez  le  bien! 
Car  1'homme  est  bon,  et  s'interesse 
A  ceux  qui  n'ont  besoin  de  rien!" 

Well,  to-morrow  I  would  have  left  all  behind  that  had 
made  life  for  me  hitherto,  and  more  than  ever  I  tried 
to  bear  in  mind  that  fundamental  maxim  of  my  phi- 
losophy which  somebody  has  since  so  well  expressed 
in  the  quaint  verse: 

"  The  inner  side  of  every  cloud 

Is  bright  and  shining ; 
Therefore  I  turn  my  clouds  about, 
And  always  wear  them  inside  out, 
To  show  the  lining." 

The  homeward-bound  steamer,  which  was  supposed 
by  all  our  American  acquaintances  to  take  us  back, 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

in  a  few  hours  more  would  have  set  sail  for  old  Eng- 
land, carrying  among  its  second-class  passengers  the 
devoted  servants  whom  I  had  had  so  much  trouble  to 
get  rid  of.  Alas!  that  dreaded  scene  had  been  worse 
than  my  darkest  anticipations,  the  faithful  creatures 
imploring  me  with  tears  to  keep  them  on  without  pay — 
which,  of  course,  was  not  to  be  thought  of ;  and  demur- 
ring, until  I  took  a  high  hand,  even  to  accept  their  pas- 
sage home,  and  the  three  months'  extra  wages  which 
would  keep  them  in  comfort  until  they  found  other  sit- 
uations. Jim  was  even  more  hard  to  manage.  He 
flatly  refused  either  to  leave  America  as  long  as  his 
beloved  young  master  was  there,  or  to  be  a  charge 
upon  our  slender  finances,  but  secured  a  job  in  the 
Pullman  car  service,  and  declared  that  he  was  awaiting 
the  time  when  Monsieur  le  Marquis  should  be  able  to 
employ  him  again.  Indeed,  the  royal-hearted  fellow 
was  anxious  to  draw  his  little  savings  from  a  London 
bank  in  order  to  place  them  at  our  disposal,  and  was 
with  difficulty  dissuaded  from  so  doing. 

To  tell  the  truth,  our  flat,  un  petit  appartement  meu- 
btt — how  amusing  that  sounded! — was  much  above 
our  new  station  in  life.  However,  as  we  had  re- 
marked while  discussing  its  advantages,  it  was  cosey 
and  clean,  having  just  been  freshly  decorated,  and, 
after  all,  one  must  have  pleasant  quarters,  even  if  it  is 
necessary  to  pinch  and  scrape  in  other  matters. 

That  flat  —  really  our  first  venture  in  what  may  be 
called  house-keeping — was  on  the  second  floor  of  a  big, 
red-brick  building.  The  windows  of  the  "parlor" — a 
species  of  chamber  of  which  I  had  never  heard  before — 
opened  on  Forty-third  Street ;  but  those  of  the  boxlike 
bedrooms  gave  on  a  narrow  area,  which,  I  am  forced 
to  confess,  was  a  dreary  enough  prospect,  while  the 
kitchen  and  dining-room  overlooked  a  small,  paved 

Alfi 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

yard,  bounded  on  all  sides  by  the  grim  backs  of  other 
tall  apartment-houses,  pierced  by  innumerable  green- 
shuttered  casements. 

In  all  there  were  six  rooms,  including  two  rather 
large  cupboards  for  the  storage  of  servants,  a  diminu- 
tive kitchen,  and  a  small  bath-room,  the  pink-kalso- 
mined  walls  of  which  gave  one  the  distinct  impression 
of  having  descended  suddenly  into  the  interior  of  a 
salmon.  The  whole  place  positively  reeked  of  respect- 
ability, which  was,  of  course,  "a  great  advantage," 
as  the  janitor  remarked  when  he  first  showed  us  around, 
and  as  proof  of  which  he  declared  that  there  were  no  less 
than  two  druggists,  one  dentist,  a  picture-dealer,  and 
a  grocer  owning  a  corner  store  living  in  the  building! 
He  pronounced  this  encomium  with  crushing  hauteur, 
and  though  my  risible  nerves  were  exquisitely  tickled 
by  a  thought  of  the  possibility  of  a  belligerent  contest 
between  the  two  druggists,  I  managed  to  look  suit- 
ably overwhelmed  by  the  social  eminence  of  my  sur- 
roundings. 

Early  in  the  morning  we  arrived  with  bag  and  bag- 
gage at  our  new  "  home,"  the  three  of  us  brimming  full 
of  mischief  and  hilarity  and  ready  to  take  everything 
par  le  bon  cdte.  Our  joy  reached  its  climax  when  our 
friend  the  janitor,  casting  a  severe  eye  upon  the  pile  of 
trunks  which  our  Jehu  had  deposited  on  the  sidewalk 
and  in  the  narrow  entrance  hall,  placed  a  grimy  finger 
on  the  platinum  monogram  and  coronet  which  we 
had  stupidly  suffered  to  remain  on  every  one  of  them, 
and  asked :  "  What's  them  things  spoilin'  the  looks  of 
that  nice  tan  leather  for?" 

His  criticisms  were  disarmed,  however,  by  my  shy 

tender  of  a  ten-dollar  gold  piece — for  now  that  we  were 

to  be  economical,  I  felt  forced,  much  against  my  will, 

to  be  sparing  in  the  matter  of  tips — and  the  offending 

*7  417 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

trunks  were  speedily  placed  where  we,  laughing  heart- 
ily at  the  incident,  at  once  proceeded  to  unpack  them. 

Surveying  the  "  parlor,"  I  decided  that  I  did  not  like 
that  name,  and  immediately  rechristened  it  The  Para- 
dise, for  its  walls  and  ceilings  were  azure-hued  and 
there  were  blue  curtains  and  blue  coverings  to  the  fur- 
niture. Along  three  of  the  walls  were  book-shelves 
which  delighted  me,  for,  when  once  filled,  the  idea  which 
possessed  me  that  it  must  resemble  the  waiting-room 
of  the  dentist  below  would  be  dispelled.  Some  jars  of 
common  but  prettily  tinted  pottery  suggested  flowers 
and  plants.  These  I  must  have,  for  to  live  without 
them  seemed  quite  impossible,  so  I  despatched  Bertrand 
post-haste  to  the  nearest  florist,  whence  he  soon  re- 
turned accompanied  by  three  messenger-boys,  laden 
with  lovely  blossoming  shrubs  and  a  huge  basket  of 
freshly  cut  roses.  I  joyfully  clapped  my  hands. 

"Now,  my  dears,"  I  exclaimed,  "just  give  me  ten 
minutes,  and  I  will  have  transformed  this  little  hutch 
into  a  bower  of  loveliness." 

Gravely  Bertrand  was  replacing  some  dollar  bills  in 
his  pocket-book. 

"I  hope,"  he  said,  apologetically,  "you  don't  think 
I've  spent  too  much  money  on  those  gay  vegetables. 
They  seem  to  run  pretty  high  here." 

"How  much?"  said  I,  with  one  foot  firmly  planted 
on  the  table,  from  which  coign  of  vantage  I  was  fill- 
ing a  jardiniere  on  the  mantel-piece  with  smilax  and 
jacqueminots. 

"Fifty-two  dollars  and  sixty-five  cents,"  he  replied, 
dubiously. 

"That's  not  much;  they're  very  pretty.  Of  course, 
in  Paris  I  believe  they  would  not  cost  that,  but  when  in 
Rome  one  must  do  as  the  Romans  do  and  not  com- 
plain/' said  I. 

418 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Fred,  who  was  struggling  with  the  recalcitrant  lock 
of  a  huge,  violet-wood  box  containing  some  of  my 
evening  and  Court  dresses,  having  finally  succeeded  in 
opening  it,  called  upon  me  to  tell  him  where  I  wanted 
to  bestow  all  this  finery. 

"Why,  in  a  closet,  you  silly  boy!" 

"What  am  I  to  do  with  the  trains?"  he  ob- 
jected. 

"The  trains!  What  do  you  mean?"  I  rejoined,  pet- 
ulantly. 

"  I  mean  that  there  isn't  a  shelf  anywhere  here  wide 
enough  to  hold  one  of  them,  even  if  you  roll  them  up 
very  tightly." 

"Roll  up  very  tightly  hand-painted  satins  and  em- 
broidered velvets?  Fred,  I  am  ashamed  of  you!  Leave 
them  in  the  trunks,  the  senseless,  useless  things,  and 
I'll  ask  our  obliging  janitor  to  put  them  somewhere  in 
the  garret  for  me." 

Fred  looked  perplexed.  "Yes,  perhaps  he  will;  but 
don't  bother  the  man  too  much  until  you  have  given 
him  something  more." 

"  I'll  ask  him  to  show  me  where,  and  take  them  up 
myself  later  on,"  said  Bertrand,  squaring  his  broad 
shoulders  with  conscious  pride;  "but  just  now  I'm 
beastly  hungry.  I  say,  Muzzi,  can't  we  go  out  and 
have  some  lunch?  This  is  awfully  exhausting  work, 
and  my  stomach  is  in  my  heels." 

"  You  poor  boy,  of  course  you  must  be  hungry,  and 
so  must  Fred.  How  selfish  of  me  not  to  think  of  it! 
To-morrow  I'll  try  my  hand  at  cooking  something  for 
you  two  gourmets.  I  am  sure  I  can  do  it,  for  I've  often 
watched  my  chefs  at  work.  They  handled  food  so  pret- 
tily. To-day  we  must  go  out  to  lunch.  But  now  look 
here,  Fred;  no  extravagance,  if  you  please,  and  no 
fashionable  restaurants!  A  steak,  or  chop,  or  some, 

419 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

thing  of  that  kind,  that's  all  we  need.  The  reign  of 
economy  has  begun!" 

"  Hurrah  for  the  reign  of  economy,  and  of  good,  juicy 
steak!"  sang  out  Bertrand,  rubbing  the  dust  from  his 
patent  leathers  with  a  silk  handkerchief.  "But  let's 
hurry  about  it.  I  am  literally  starving." 

"  I  won't  be  a  minute.  I'll  just  exchange  this  walk- 
ing-gown, which  is  all  crumpled,  for  another  one,  and 
be  with  you  directly,"  said  I. 

Suiting  the  action  to  the  words,  I  retired  into  my 
tiny  bedroom,  and  with  remarkable  clumsiness  and 
hurry  divested  myself  of  my  pastel-blue  silk- cloth  frock. 
In  spite  of  my  haste  I  soon  heard  Fred  and  Bertrand 
dancing  a  war-dance  before  the  door,  and  entreating 
me,  with  blood-curdling  whoops,  to  put  an  end  to  their 
tortures. 

"Oh,  don't  bother  me,"  I  cried  back.  "There  are 
sixty-three  little  silver  olives  closing  this  hussar  jacket 
of  mine,  and  you  don't  know  how  difficult  it  is  to  fasten 
them  one's  self." 

"Don't  talk  of  olives;  you  make  my  mouth  water!" 
shouted  Bertrand,  through  the  key-hole. 

My  hair  was  rumpled,  thanks  to  my  unskilful  way 
of  pulling  skirts  over  my  head,  and  would  not  be  coaxed 
into  anything  like  order.  I  stamped  my  foot  viciously, 
with  a  passing  thought  of  Johanna's  deft  fingers,  but 
at  last  I  got  my  unruly  tresses  tucked  away  under  one 
of  Virot's  prettiest  mousquetaire  hats,  matching  in 
color  the  myrtle-green  costume  I  had  quickly  snatched 
from  a  hamper  on  the  floor,  and,  drawing  on  my  suede 
gloves,  rejoined  my  companions. 

"Oh,  come,  you  can't  go  out  with  varnished  shoes! 
They  don't  suit  that  dress.  Bronze  ones  are  what  you 
need.  Those  spoil  the  scheme  of  color,"  exclaimed 
Bertrand,  surveying  me  with  his  usual  fastidiousness. 

420 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

"  Bother  the  shoes  1"  protested  Fred.  "  Let's  go.  It's 
already  two  o'clock/' 

And  so  we  sallied  forth,  walking  swiftly  towards 
Eighth  Avenue  and  economy.  We  bravely  entered  a 
"chop-house,"  and  seated  ourselves  at  a  little  polished 
table  adorned  with  a  cruet-stand,  flanked  by  a  dish  of 
pickles  and  another  of  water-cress.  The  long,  nar- 
row room  was  crowded,  and,  much  to  my  annoyance, 
everybody  present  turned  and  stared  at  us  with  un- 
disguised astonishment,  and  I  heard  a  whispered 
"Actor -folks  on  a  spree,"  which  covered  me  with 
confusion.  I  looked  imploringly  at  Bertrand,  who  had 
turned  as  red  as  a  turkey-cock,  while  Fred  muttered, 
wrathfully : 

"It's  those  idiotic  diamonds  in  your  ears,  as  big  as 
hazel-nuts." 

My  temper  was  getting  the  worst  of  me,  for  I  was 
tired,  and  hungry  as  well. 

"  What  about  your  gray  frock  -  coats,  and  pearl 
scarf-pins,  and  boutonnieres  of  orchids?"  I  replied, 
frowning  defiantly.  "Why,  there's  a  woman  over 
there  devouring  you  with  her  eyes.  It's  positively 
disgusting." 

This  was  a  clincher.  They  dared  not  try  to  cast 
any  more  blame  upon  me,  and  with  tremendous  gusto 
we  fell  upon  the  steak  and  potatoes,  brought  by  a 
friendly  waiter  wearing  a  dazzlingly  white  apron. 

"Adversity  improves  your  appetite,"  whispered 
Fred  to  me  across  the  table.  "Yesterday  I  couldn't 
tempt  you  with  quail  or  ortolan.  Shall  I  order  another 
steak?" 

"No,  no;  one  is  quite  enough,"  I  pleaded,  refraining 
from  pushing  my  plate  forward  for  more.  "You  and 
Bertrand  finish  this;  I've  had  enough,"  I  continued, 
mendaciously. 

421 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"So  have  we,"  said  they  together,  loading  their 
plates  with  water-cress  and  the  remainder  of  the  pota- 
toes, which  the  friendly  waiter  informed  us  were  "in 
their  jackets!" 

"How  decent  of  them!"  said  I.  "It  reminds  me  of 
the  old  maid  at  that  other  flat  which  we  inspected  last 
week  who  had  put  pantalettes  on  the  legs  of  her 
piano." 

"The  one  with  the  parrot,  who  declared  that  you 
must  engage  yourself  to  keep  no  dogs,  cats,  or  babies 
while  on  her  premises?"  asked  Fred. 

"The  very  same,"  I  replied.  "She  had  nice  little 
cork-screw  curls  bobbing  up  and  down,  and  every  time 
she  said  'dear  me/  in  her  queer  falsetto  voice,  the  par- 
rot behind  her  cleared  his  throat  aggressively,  and  also 
said  'dear  me/  only  three  tones  lower.  Bertrand  and 
I  almost  exploded  with  laughter  under  both  their 
Roman  noses." 

The  meal,  such  as  it  was,  being  now  at  an  end,  Fred 
called  the  waiter. 

"  Steak,  sixty  cents ;  potatoes,  ten  cents ;  two  beers, 
twenty  cents;  pot  of  tea,  twenty-five  cents — one  dol- 
lar fifteen,  please,"  replied  that  worthy. 

"How  much  for  the  water-cress  and  bread?"  asked 
Fred. 

"Nothing,  sir;  that's  thrown  in." 

"Thrown  in,  is  it? — how  nice!"  and  much  elated  at 
such  unparalleled  munificence,  Fred  handed  the  as- 
tonished man  three  crisp  dollar  bills,  requesting  him  to 
keep  the  change. 

We  then  slunk  away,  bowed  out  by  the  proprietor 
himself,  who,  to  my  surprise,  was  in  his  shirt- sleeves, 
but  whose  politeness  was  unimpeachable. 

The  afternoon  wore  on,  and  so  small  was  our  apart- 
ment that  by  six  o'clock  everything  was  ready  and 

422 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

garnished,  except  the  beds,  that  I  was  direfully  puz- 
zled how  to  make  up.  Bertrand  intended  to  accompany 
Fred  down  town  to  keep  a  business  appointment,  so  I 
gave  him  an  order  for  some  little  rolls,  some  p&te  de  foie 
gras,  caviare,  fruit,  and  other  tid-bits  with  which  to 
prepare  a  supper  when  they  returned,  and  was  then  left, 
for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  entirely  alone  at  home. 

As  soon  as  they  had  departed  I  made  the  grand  tour 
of  my  tiny  domain,  and  finally  stopped  before  the  front 
window,  whence  I  looked  out  a  little  wearily.  The 
lights  in  the  street  below  came  forth  one  by  one,  and 
the  minutes  passed  into  half-hours,  while  I  listened 
vaguely  to  the  sounds  of  the  great  city  and  the  human 
bee-hive  of  which  I  now  inhabited  a  corner.  On  the 
sidewalk  I  could  plainly  hear  the  janitor  and  some  of 
his  cronies  laughing  and  talking,  and  when  a  group  of 
boys  sauntered  by,  one  of  them  playing  a  sour-toned 
accordion,  I  could  not  repress  a  slight  shudder.  Of 
course  my  thoughts  wandered  to  what  I  had  left  be- 
hind. Brittany  and  its  wave -beaten  shores,  so  dear 
to  me,  the  luminous  magnificence  of  Egypt,  the  brill- 
iancy and  charm  of  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg,  the 
gayeties  of  Paris,  the  beauty  of  English  parks,  or  the 
hurry  and  scurry  of  London  seasons.  Then,  in  fancy, 
I  returned  to  fair  Corfu,  to  my  beloved  Empress  and 
the  happy  days  spent  with  her,  to  my  dear  horses,  my 
dogs,  my  hundred  and  one  pleasures  and  amusements! 
That  reverie  was  a  long  one,  and  absorbed  me  so  com- 
pletely that  I  gave  a  start  of  astonishment  when  at 
last,  turning  round,  I  was  confronted  by  the  narrow 
walls  of  the  mean  little  room  in  which  I  stood. 

Crossing  over  to  my  bed-chamber,  I  undressed  and 
donned  a  tea-gown.  It  was  a  pretty  thing — showers  of 
Mechlin  lace  over  pale-pink  velvet — and  a  short,  mirth- 
less laugh  escaped  me  as  I  slipped  into  it,  but  I  pinned  up 

423 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

the  long  train  and  marched  resolutely  into  the  kitchen, 
where  everything  was  in  wild  confusion.  For  an  hour 
or  so  I  busied  myself  with  plates,  dishes,  and  sauce- 
pans, preserving  my  ridiculous  flounces  and  frou- 
frous from  stains  and  dust  by  the  help  of  a  huge  bath- 
towel  tied  around  my  waist  with  a  business-like  bit  of 
string.  A  little  before  eleven  o'clock  I  had  evoked 
something  like  order  from  the  general  chaos,  and  ex- 
temporized from  the  provisions  sent  by  Bertrand  a 
snug  little  supper  to  cheer  their  hearts  and  stomachs 
on  their  return.  Really,  the  little  dining-room,  with 
its  snowy  drapery,  its  sage-green  rug  and  curtains, 
and  plain  oak  furniture,  looked  very  pleasing  by  gas- 
light. With  a  sigh  of  relief  I  re-entered  The  Paradise, 
and  divesting  myself  of  my  improvised  apron,  turned 
up  the  light  of  a  green-shaded  reading-lamp,  and  took 
down,  hap-hazard,  a  volume  from  one  of  the  shelves. 
Carrying  it  to  the  lounge  by  the  open  window,  I  stretch- 
ed myself  out  at  full  length  on  the  cushions,  with  a  sigh 
of  utter  weariness. 

It  was  oppressively  hot,  although  the  spring  was  still 
young,  and  both  the  night  and  the  city  looked  to  me 
more  stagnant,  sordid,  and  overwhelmed  in  gloom  than 
ever  before.  A  strange  restlessness  had  suddenly  taken 
possession  of  me,  and  it  seemed  as  if  I  were  being 
pricked  with  numberless  sharp-pointed  electric  needles. 
I  sat  up  impatiently.  The  people  in  the  street  moved 
like  sleepy  cripples  in  this  weary  trance  of  heat.  It 
was,  indeed,  a  night  without  night's  tenderness  or 
starry  charm,  and  I  was  not,  by  far,  as  happy  as  I 
had  been  earlier  in  the  day,  when  the  presence  of 
Fred  and  Bertrand,  and  also  the  prospect  of  possessing 
this  quaint  and  novel  little  habitation  of  ours,  had  cast 
a  rosy,  hopeful  glow  over  everything.  My  sanguine 
mood  had  passed  slowly  away,  and  as,  with  bowed 

424 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

head,  I  gazed  into  the  pulsating  darkness  without,  it 
seemed  to  me  as  if  my  very  heart  and  soul  grovelled 
in  the  dust,  breathing  in  its  choking  and  acrid  breath. 
The  heat  garnered  during  the  day  in  the  narrow  streets 
had  increased,  so  as  to  be  almost  intolerable.  The  sky 
overhead  was  of  a  lack-lustre  blackness,  and  now  and 
again  a  lazy  puff  of  wind  blew  about  the  dirty  rubbish 
that  had  accumulated  among  the  greasy  paving-stones, 
causing  bits  of  papers  and  straw  to  dance  dizzily  along 
the  sidewalks. 

Suddenly  I  remembered  that  I  had  forgotten  to  pre- 
pare the  salad  which  Bertrand  had  sent  with  the  other 
supplies,  and,  springing  up  remorsefully,  I  went  back  to 
the  kitchen,  where  I  stood  hesitating  for  a  moment.  On 
the  square  deal  table  stood  a  bowl  of  fresh  lettuce- 
leaves  and  some  coral-hued  tomatoes  in  a  glass  dish. 
I  pulled  open  the  door  of  the  dresser  and  fumbled  vague- 
ly among  its  contents. 

"  This  will  never  do,"  I  thought,  realizing  the  languor 
of  depression  that  was  steadily  growing  upon  me,  and 
trying  to  pull  myself  together.  With  studied  care  I 
selected  a  knife,  fork,  and  spoon,  and  collecting  mus- 
tard, salt,  oil,  vinegar,  and  pepper  on  a  tray,  carried 
them  to  the  table.  Then  occurred  an  accident  that 
threw  me  into  quite  disproportionate  consternation.  I 
dropped  the  bowl  in  which  I  was  preparing  the  dressing, 
and  it  broke  into  three  neat  pieces  on  the  bare,  wood 
floor,  but  I  took  myself  morally  by  the  collar,  so  to 
speak,  and,  kneeling  down,  quickiy  repaired  the  mis- 
chief, after  which  I  once  more  applied  myself  to  my 
task.  Eleven  o'clock  was  striking  from  a  neighboring 
church  -  tower,  breaking  the  silence  of  the  little,  dark 
kitchen.  Great  beads  of  perspiration  ran  from  my  fore- 
head to  my  cheeks. 

"  It  doesn't  matter,"  I  murmured  to  myself,  brushing 

425 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  drops  away  with  the  back  of  my  hand.  "I  dare 
say  it  will  be  cooler  soon."  At  that  moment  a  faint, 
silvery  gleam  began  to  show  through  the  window, 
which  was  only  partly  covered  by  a  thin  cotton  blind — 
the  moon  was  at  last  breaking  through  the  inky  dark- 
ness without.  One  long,  spearlike  ray  reached  across 
the  dingy  table  to  me,  like  the  hand  of  a  friend,  and  at 
once  I  felt  my  vigor  and  courage  return. 

When  I  had  placed  the  salad  in  the  dining-room, 
beside  the  jardiniere  of  crimson  and  yellow  roses  deco- 
rating the  centre  of  the  table,  I  walked  back  to  The 
Paradise,  and,  taking  from  an  open  trunk  a  large 
feather  fan,  I  once  more  lay  down  on  the  lounge,  at- 
tempting by  its  means  to  obtain  a  little  coolness,  and 
gradually  I  dropped  into  a  broken  slumber,  from  which 
a  tinkle  of  the  bell  roused  me. 

I  saw  immediately,  when  Fred  and  Bertrand  entered, 
that  something  had  gone  wrong,  but  forbearing  to 
question  them,  led  the  way  to  the  dining-room,  and 
made  them  sit  down  to  the  little  meal  that  was  in  readi- 
ness. They  fell  to  with  reassuring  appetite,  and  soon 
I  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  more  cheerful  looks  ap- 
pear upon  their  tired  faces.  While  we  smoked  our 
cigarettes  and  sipped  tea  made  with  a  little  travelling 
samovar,  I  heard  the  tale  of  Fred's  first  disappointment. 
He  had  found,  right  at  the  outset,  poor  fellow!  how 
difficult  it  would  prove  for  him  to  find  the  lucrative 
position  which  he  had  fondly  imagined  would  be  easily 
obtained  by  an  English  university  man  and  diplomat 
en  disp&nibilite. 

"Better  luck  next  time,"  I  said,  lightly.  "You 
are  abominably  tired  to-night,  and  cannot  look  upon 
matters  with  proper  fairness.  Let's  all  go  to  bed  and 
sleep  the  sleep  of  the  just.  La  nuit  porte  conseH." 

Next  morning  I  was  up  bright  and  early,  burning 

426 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

with  eager  anticipation  of  my  first  marketing.  Leav- 
ing the  boys  to  perform  their  dandified  toilets,  I  sallied 
forth  and  turned  my  steps  towards  Eighth  Avenue, 
thinking  that,  as  it  was  uglier,  it  was  presumably 
cheaper  than  Sixth.  I  wore  the  simplest  gown  I  had, 
but  still  the  delicate  texture  of  the  avoine-mttre  pine- 
apple batiste,  profusely  worked  with  floss  silks  of  the 
same  tint  and  finely  pleated  over  re'se'da-hued  foulard, 
with  a  hat  en  suite,  covered  with  linden  blossoms,  did 
not  seem  exactly  appropriate  to  the  occasion. 

I  had,  of  course,  no  idea  how  to  go  about  my  under- 
taking; but  one  thing  seemed  clear — that  people  going 
to  market  must  have  a  basket  for  their  purchases,  so, 
looking  anxiously  up  and  down  the  dingy  thorough- 
fare, I  noticed  what  I  have  since  learned  is  called  a 
hardware  shop,  and,  entering,  I  selected  from  an  un- 
gainly mass  of  wicker-work  depending  from  the  ceil- 
ing a  substantially  square  affair  with  a  heavy  lid. 

"Where  shall  I  send  it,  lady?"  asked  the  shopman, 
wiping  the  sweat  from  his  brow  with  the  edge  of  a  dirty 
apron. 

"I'll  take  it  myself;  I  want  it  for  marketing,"  I  ex- 
plained, surprised,  and  thinking  that  such  courtesy 
called  forth  by  the  purchase  of  an  article  that  seemed 
amazingly  cheap  at  seventy-five  cents — for  I  did  not 
know  but  what  it  might  be  worth  five  dollars — spoke 
well  for  American  tradesmen.  He  stared  at  me  for  a 
moment  with  his  mouth  open,  and  then  a  grin  that  I 
considered  offensively  derisive  spread  over  his  face, 
so,  taking  up  my  property,  I  stepped  out.  A  sun  like 
molten  metal  swept  the  cross-streets  with  a  promise  of 
another  day  of  ghastly  heat,  which  made  one's  eyes 
smart  with  anticipation,  and  with  a  sidelong  glance  of 
disgust  at  a  couple  of  meagre  cats  pawing  a  heap  of 
kitchen  refuse  near  some  area  steps,  I  walked  away. 

427 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

Soon  a  large  butcher-shop  hove  in  sight.  The  odor  of 
raw  flesh  has  always  made  me  feel  sick,  but  I  plucked 
up  courage  and  marched  resolutely  in. 

"  What  can  I  do  for  you,  madame?"  said  a  red-faced 
individual,  whose  neck  rose  in  a  roll  behind  his  ears, 
and  whose  corpulence  was  wrapped,  like  a  parcel,  in 
blue,  checked  cotton. 

"I  would  like  a  joint  of  lamb,"  I  replied,  with  assur- 
ance. 

"Yes'm,  cert'nly;  which  part,  mum — shoulder,  leg, 
or  saddle,  mum?" 

"Can  you  buy  leg  without  shoulder,  or  shoulder 
without  leg?"  I  asked,  confusedly. 

The  fat-necked  one  stared. 

"Why,  yes'm;  the  shoulder  doesn't  come  with  the 
leg.  There's  only  two  legs  to  a  lamb." 

"Only  two  legs  to  a  lamb!"  I  repeated,  wondering 
if  the  American  mutton  travelled  on  two  feet  exclusively  ; 
but,  afraid  to  exhibit  ignorance,  I  hastily  demanded  a 
leg. 

After  a  great  clatter  of  knife  and  whetstone,  he  began 
a  surgical  operation  on  a  helpless  carcass  suspended, 
neck  downward,  from  a  murderous  hook.  Reminded 
of  my  war  experience  in  hospital  tents,  I  was  think- 
ing the  process  would  have  been  less  revolting  if  per- 
formed on  a  human  subject,  when,  flinging  the  result 
on  the  scales,  he  announced,  oracularly:  "Seven  and 
three-quarters."  This  did  not  seem  much  for  a  lamb 
with  only  two  legs,  but  I  paid,  and  removing  the  lid 
from  my  basket,  held  it  out  invitingly.  He  laughed 
outright,  very  rudely,  as  I  thought,  and  my  apprecia- 
tion of  the  American  tradesman,  raised  so  high  at 
the  beginning  of  the  hardware  -  shop  experience,  de- 
clined rapidly.  I  was  not  going  to  be  put  out  of  coun- 
tenance by  such  a  lout,  however,  and  bestowing  on  him 

428 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

a  look  of  freezing  disdain,  I  requested  him  curtly  to 
put  the  meat  in  the  basket.  He  shrugged  his  fat  shoul- 
ders, expectorated  philosophically  and  accurately  into  a 
box  of  waste,  and,  wrapping  the  joint  in  brown  paper, 
carried  out  my  directions  with  a  surly  slam.  I  was 
very  angry  as  I  once  more  emerged  into  the  glare  of 
the  avenue,  and  it  was  with  a  quick  and  rather  staccato 
step  that  I  headed  for  a  grocery,  before  which  sickly 
cabbages,  discouraged  salads,  and  withered  radishes 
stood  cheek  by  jowl  with  funny  little  square  baskets 
filled  with  unhealthy-looking  strawberries  and  other 
dust-powdered  fruit.  The  heat  had  become  some- 
thing awful,  and  the  white  tulle  of  my  veil  felt  damp 
and  uncomfortable,  and  caught  limply,  again  and 
again,  in  the  fastening  of  my  solitaire  pearl  ear-rings; 
moreover,  the  weight  of  the  big  basket  made  my  rings 
cut  into  my  fingers  under  the  gloves. 

The  grocer  was  tall  and  lanky,  with  a  peaked  face 
framed  in  long,  sandy  "weepers"  and  an  expansive 
smile,  disclosing  a  few  very  yellow  teeth.  He  wore  an 
odd  linen  coat  reaching  down  to  his  heels,  which  filled 
me  with  amazement,  for  it  seemed  strange  to  wear  an 
overcoat  in-doors !  On  his  asking  what  he  could  do  for 
me,  I  was  puzzled ;  but  eager  to  seem  perfectly  at  home 
with  grocers  and  their  wares,  I  glibly  started  a  list  of 
articles. 

"Five  pounds  of  pepper,  if  you  please." 

"Is  it  to  fix  your  furs  with,  mum?"  he  asked. 

"Fix  my  what?"  I  asked,  helplessly. 

"Your  furs,  mum,  for  the  summer;  but  no  matter," 
he  continued,  scribbling  my  order  down  with  great 
rapidity. 

"Oh — ah — some  jam,  and,  let  me  see,  some  sugar 
and  salt,  and,  yes,  some  butter  and  potatoes,"  I  con- 
tinued, floundering  desperately  along.  "And  put  it 

429 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

all  in  the  basket,  please,"  I  added,  depositing  that  use- 
ful article  on  the  counter.  For  a  moment  he  looked  at 
me  from  head  to  foot  with  such  undisguised  amaze- 
ment that  I  felt  quite  uncomfortable  and  embarrassed. 

"Now  look  here,  mum/'  he  began,  firmly,  "  no  doubt 
you're  a  stranger  in  these  parts,  as  is  plain  to  be  seen. 
Here  we  don't  allow  ladies  to  carry  loads  like  this.  I'll 
send  it  round  to  your  house  if  you'll  give  me  your  ad- 
dress." 

"I  couldn't  dream  of  troubling  you/'  I  stammered, 
recollecting  unpleasantly  my  intended  economy  in  tips. 

"Trouble!  Why,  mum,  that's  what  we're  here  for! 
But  you  didn't  tell  me  what  quantities  you  wanted." 

"Oh,  well,  I'm  sure  I  don't  know!  Send  what  you 
please,"  I  rejoined,  hastily.  "Here's  my  address," 
and  I  scribbled  it  on  my  card.  "Please  send  the  bill 
with  it,  for  I'm  in  a  hurry." 

"No  need  for  a  bill  to-day,  mum,  if  you'll  give  us 
your  custom.  We  keep  an  elegant  line  of  creamery 
butter,  new-laid  eggs,  fresh  vegetables  " — here  I  groaned 
in  spirit,  thinking  of  the  well-worn  exhibit  outside — 
"fine  dry  groceries,  English  bacon,  imported  wines 
and  liquors,  foreign  and  domestic  jams,  and  the  finest 
brands  of  cigars  and  cigarettes." 

Heavens,  the  man  must  have  divined  my  weakness 
for  Turkish  tobacco ! 

I  was  about  to  take  up  my  basket,  when  he  laid  a 
detaining  hand  upon  it. 

"Now,  mum,"  he  declared,  "and  what  did  I  tell  you? 
You  ain't  going  to  carry  this,  either.  My  boy  will 
bring  it  with  the  rest." 

Quite  overwhelmed,  I  relinquished  my  hold  upon  the 
handle  and  fled,  leaving  him,  no  doubt,  under  the  im- 
pression that  I  was  mentally  deranged. 

A  little  discouraged,  I  determined  to  cut  short  my 

430 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

marketing  operations,  but  before  going  home  I  wished 
very  much  to  get  some  lobsters,  as  both  Fred  and  Ber- 
trand  were  very  fond  of  them.  Vainly  I  trudged  up 
and  down  the  avenue  in  search  of  a  fish-monger,  and 
then,  with  a  sudden  inspiration,  I  approached  a  huge, 
blue-coated  policeman,  who,  with  his  hands  behind  his 
back,  was  staring  into  a  window  full  of  whiskey  and 
liqueur  bottles  of  all  kinds. 

"Excuse  me,  Bobby,"  I  said,  with  an  engaging 
smile,  "but  where  can  I  find  a  lobster?" 

"A  lobster?"  he  echoed,  turning  very  red  and  look- 
ing upon  me  with  an  eye  of  suspicion. 

"Yes;  will  you  show  me  a  place  where  I  can  get 
lobsters  and  prawns  and  such  things?"  said  I,  dimly 
discerning  that  I  had  offended  him. 

"Oh!"  said  he,  looking,  for  some  reason  or  other, 
much  relieved,  "you  mean  a  fish-market?" 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so,"  I  replied. 

"Come  along,  then;  there's  one  right  at  the  other 
end  of  my  beat.  And  you  can  walk  with  me,"  he  added, 
patronizingly. 

Nothing  loath,  I  fell  into  step  as  best  I  could,  and, 
wishing  to  make  his  task  as  little  unpleasant  as  pos- 
sible, I  entered  into  conversation.  A  moment  later  a 
couple  of  ragamuffins,  passing  by,  exhibited  unmistak- 
able signs  of  interest  and  amusement. 

"  Hello  1"  yelled  one.     "  Git  onto  old  Gilesy's  mash !" 

I  failed  to  comprehend  this  remark,  but,  noticing  an 
increased  attention  drawn  upon  myself  from  several 
knots  of  by-standers,  and  also  a  self-conscious  squaring 
of  the  shoulders  and  twirling  of  the  mustache  on  the 
part  of  my  escort,  I  suspected  that  it  was  more  com- 
plimentary to  him  than  to  myself.  Fortunately,  at 
that  moment  we  came  abreast  of  a  show-window  filled 
with  fish  of  every  description  languidly  reposing  on 

431 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

a  bed  of  sea -weed  and  flanked  by  artistically  erected 
bastions  of  oysters  and  various  crustaceans. 

"That's  the  ticket/'  quoth  my  guide,  counsellor,  and 
friend,  "and  I  guess  I'll  wait  outside  for  you,  because" 
— he  was  kind  enough  to  conclude — "  it  '11  be  real  pleas- 
ant to  have  a  nice  little  body  like  you  to  talk  to  on  the 
way  back." 

Properly  gratified,  as  was  only  natural,  I  nodded 
my  appreciation,  and,  with  much  more  sagacity  than  I 
had  displayed  heretofore,  bought  two  vicious  -  looking 
lobsters.  Their  threatening  nippers  having  been  se- 
cured with  twine,  they  were  deftly  tied  in  paper  by  the 
vendor,  and,  carrying  these  at  arm's -length  to  avoid 
the  water  drip,  I  rejoined  "Gilesy,"  expressing  my 
satisfaction  at  having,  thanks  to  him,  completed  my 
errand. 

"Gimme  them  fish/'  he  said,  smiling,  "they're  ruin- 
ing your  gloves.  Mine  are  cotton,  you  see,  and  it 
don't  matter.  Sure  it  won't  hurt  them  or  me  to  carry 
them  as  far  as  I  go." 

"That's  very  good  of  you,"  I  said,  gratefully,  sur- 
rendering the  uncomfortable  parcel.  "Do  you  know, 
I've  always  liked  the  police  wherever  I  have  been.  My 
father-in-law,  in  London,  goes  by  the  name  of  the  po- 
liceman's friend,  and  last  year  the  Metropolitan  force 
presented  him  with  a  silver  dinner-service." 

"And  what  may  the  old  gent's  name  be?"  asked 
Brass  Buttons. 

I  mentioned  it,  whereupon  he  grew  suddenly  very 
respectful.  Oddly  enough,  he  was  a  Londoner  born, 
and  recognized  it  at  once.  Straightening  himself  up 
in  a  soldierly  way,  he  exclaimed,  saluting  in  most 
approved  style : 

"You'll  excuse  my  familiarity,  my  lady,  but  who'd 
have  thought  to  find  one  of  the  quality  from  the  old 

432 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

country  doing  marketing  on  Eighth  Avenue?  How- 
soever, now  that  I  know  you,  my  lady,  if  it  happens 
that  you  live  in  the  neighborhood,  I  hope  as  I  can  do 
you  a  service  now  and  again ;  it  would  be  a  real  pleas- 
ure, you  can  believe  me.  My  name  is  Giles,  and  this 
is  my  number,"  and  he  pointed  to  his  badge.  "So, 
whenever  you  want  me,  just  send  for  me,  and  I'll  be 
proud  to  serve  you." 

A  few  moments  more  brought  us  to  the  corner  of  my 
street,  and  I  thanked  my  new  acquaintance  most  cord- 
ially, not  only  for  his  ready  help,  but  for  his  interest 
in  my  future  welfare.  Slipping  a  two-dollar  bill  into 
his  hand — which  I  must  do  him  the  justice  to  say  he 
at  first  demurred  at  accepting — I  resumed  my  lobsters 
and  ran  home,  for  the  watch  that  hung  at  my  chate- 
laine showed  I  had  been  away  two  hours.  I  found 
Fred  and  Bertrand  pacing  excitedly  up  and  down  be- 
fore the  apartment-house,  and  so  worried  by  my  pro- 
longed absence  that  they  rather  unjustly  overwhelmed 
me  with  reproaches,  which,  seeing  how  genuinely  dis- 
tressed they  were,  I  accepted  in  a  meek  and  humble 
spirit  to  which  they  were  not  accustomed.  When  we 
once  more  found  ourselves  in  our  rooms,  they  showed 
me  many  little  improvements  which  they  had  already 
contrived.  The  trunks  that  were  not  of  immediate 
necessity  had  been  conveyed  to  what  Bertrand  ex- 
plained was  called  the  storage  -  room,  somewhere  in 
the  roof,  and  this  greatly  added  to  our  comfort  in  such 
restricted  quarters. 

My  first  experience  in  cooking  dinner — for  we  en- 
tirely forgot  lunch — was  exceedingly  humorous.  Ber- 
trand, protecting  his  irreproachable  clothes  with  a  blue 
silk  undershirt  tied  about  his  waist  by  the  sleeves, 
volunteered  as  marmiton,  and  presented  a  most  ludi- 
crous appearance  seated  on  the  kitchen-table  and  hold- 
rf  433 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ing  in  his  lap  a  tin  pan  of  potatoes,  which  he  divested 
of  their  "jackets" — to  quote  our  friend  of  the  chop- 
house.  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  that  while  I  was 
away  my  grocery  order  had  arrived.  Full  advantage 
had  naturally  been  taken  of  my  despairing  carte-blanche, 
for  not  only  was  the  floor  of  the  "store-room" — a  fair- 
sized  closet — but  those  of  the  kitchen  and  dining-room, 
piled  up  with  bags  and  baskets.  My  consternation 
may  be  imagined ;  but  as  it  would  have  been  undesir- 
able and  unpleasant  to  make  an  expose  of  my  slip-shod 
business  methods,  I  .explained  airily  that  I  thought  it 
was  wiser  to  lay  in  a  good  stock  at  once,  and  received 
with  becoming  modesty  the  praise  my  sagacity  elicited. 
Not  in  vain  had  I  trusted  that  masculine  ideas  of  house- 
keeping would  prevent  the  boys  from  comprehending 
the  futility  of  provisioning  ourselves  against  the  "  wreck- 
ful  siege  of  battering  days"  with  dozens  of  jam  and 
pickles,  bag  after  bag  of  salt  and  sugar,  and  box  after 
box  of  raisins  and  spice! 

At  five  o'clock  I  put  upon  the  table  a  meal  which  I 
would  not  venture  to  honor  with  the  name  of  dinner, 
but  which,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  picnic,  gave 
us  much  more  pleasure  than  any  banquet  would  have 
done.  I  prided  rr^self  on  having  successfully  over- 
come all  culinary  difficulties ;  and  although  the  famous 
leg  of  lamb  was  a  little  underdone,  the  potatoes  slightly 
burned,  and  the  soup  altogether  lacking,  yet  the  youth- 
ful appetites  of  my  boys  made  them  overlook  all  de- 
ficiencies, and  we  finished  the  feast  with  delicious  cof- 
fee and  some  Turkish  cigarettes  in  the  most  approved 
fashion,  all  turning  in  afterwards  to  the  dish-washing. 
This  last  was  the  most  disagreeable  experience  yet  en- 
countered. Fred  at  first  insisted  that  I  should  wear 
gloves,  and  I  got  into  such  a  mess  that  I  ended  by  turn- 
ing him  out  of  the  kitchen  and  setting  him  to  clean 

434 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

my  rings  of  the  grease  with  which  they  had  thus  be- 
come clotted. 

An  experience  even  more  momentous  than  the  initial 
attempt  at  cooking  was  my  first  ride  on  the  elevated 
railroad.  I  was  to  meet  Fred  at  the  general  post-office, 
and,  very  proud  of  going  down-town  alone,  like  any 
ordinary  mortal,  I  climbed  the  stairs  at  Forty-second 
Street,  and  bought  a  ticket  with  secret  self-congratu- 
lations upon  my  matter-of-fact  manner,  then,  drop- 
ping it  in  the  box  with  studied  carelessness,  asked  if  I 
were  on  the  down-town  side. 

"No,  miss,  this  is  the  up-town  track,"  replied  the 
chopper,  in  stentorian  tones.  "  Cross  the  street  for  the 
down-town  trains." 

I  humbly  descended,  feeling  the  wind  taken  very- 
much  out  of  my  sails,  and  crossing  Forty-second  Street 
ran  up  again,  purchased  another  ticket,  and  remarked, 
confidently,  to  the  ticket-chopper: 

"This  is  the  down-town  side." 

"Not  at  all,"  was  the  gruff  reply.  "I  told  you  to 
cross  the  street  for  the  down-town  train.  Don't  you 
understand?" 

I  recognized  him  then  with  a  thrill  of  bewilderment, 
and,  covered  with  confusion,  hastily  retraced  my  steps, 
reascended,  bought  another  ticket,  and  emerged  into 
the  presence  of  that  same  ubiquitous  ticket  -  chopper. 
I  began  to  think  the  man  had  wings,  or  trap-doors  to 
pop  up  through  like  a  jack-in-the-box. 

"Say,"  he  exclaimed,  wrathfully,  perhaps  thinking 
himself  the  victim  of  some  incomprehensible  joke, 
"are  you  daft?"  and  seizing  me  unceremoniously  by 
the  arm  he  whirled  me  round,  and,  pointing  across  the 
tracks  to  the  opposite  station,  he  blustered : 

"The  other  side  of  the  avenue,  don't  you  hear?" 

"Why  didn't  you  say  so  before?"  I  cried,  indignant- 

435 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

ly.  "You  told  me  to  cross  the  street;  you  didn't  say 
avenue.  How  did  you  expect  me  to  understand?" 

"It  takes  a  good  deal  to  make  some  people  under- 
stand/' he  returned,  scornfully.  "But  here,  now,  I'll 
pass  you  on,"  and,  making  a  speaking-trumpet  of  his 
hands,  he  bawled  across  the  metals  to  his  colleague : 

"Pass  this  one  through.  She's  put  three  tickets  in 
the  box  already.  She's  a  crank." 

I  wondered  why  I  was  referred  to  as  a  piece  of  machin- 
ery, but  I  was  beginning  to  understand  that  English 
is  not  necessarily  American,  and  in  my  relief  at  the 
elucidation  of  the  mystery  of  the  tracks,  I  forebore  to 
ask  him  to  explain. 

When  I  told  Fred  about  it  at  the  post-office,  he  gave 
vent  to  a  series  of  guffaws  which  made  everybody  turn 
around  to  stare  at  him,  and  later  on  he  repeated  it  to 
Bertrand  as  the  best  joke  he  had  ever  heard. 

Days  went  by  and  I  gradually  became  accustomed 
to  my  new  duties.  At  the  end  of  a  month,  indeed,  I 
considered  myself  to  be  a  thorough-paced  house-keeper, 
although,  as  I  look  back  upon  those  days  from  the 
present  glory  of  my  hard-bought  knowledge,  I  cannot 
but  marvel  at  what  it  would  be  weak  to  term  my  im- 
becility. Of  course  it  seemed  but  natural  to  me  that  the 
boys  should  be  fed  on  the  fat  of  the  land,  and  being 
unable  to  find  on  Eighth  Avenue  the  delicacies  which 
seemed  to  me  necessary  for  them,  I  extended  my  pur- 
chases to  Sixth,  and  occasionally  even  to  Fifth  Ave- 
nue. The  result  to  my  purse  was  disastrous,  for  a 
serious  inroad  had  already  been  made  upon  it  by  a  bill 
of  $165  sent  at  the  end  of  the  first  week  by  the  thrifty 
grocer,  who,  infuriated  at  seeing  no  more  orders  forth- 
coming, poured  out  in  this  manner  the  phials  of  his 
wrath  on  my  hapless  head. 

The  janitor  and  his  wife  were  now  my  sworn  friends, 

436 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and  I  was  creditably  informed  that  they  were  prone  to 
describe  me  as  "quite  the  lady,"  which  ought  to  have 
made  up  for  most  of  my  annoyances,  as  it  is  agree- 
able to  be  popular  wherever  one  finds  one's  self.  These 
poor  people,  who  were  very  kind  and  helpful,  had  a 
fine,  bouncing  baby  of  which  they  were  inordinately 
proud,  and  I  had  become  quite  fond  of  the  blue-eyed, 
curly-headed  mite.  One  evening,  as  I  was  returning 
home  from  a  long  walk  in  the  park,  I  was  dismayed  to 
hear  that  the  poor  little  fellow  had  been  seized  with 
croup.  Naturally,  I  went  at  once  to  the  basement, 
where,  in  a  damp,  dark  room,  below  the  level  of  the 
street,  I  found  an  almost  distracted  father  and  a  mother 
in  hysterics.  Taking  the  law  into  my  own  hands,  I 
established  myself  in  the  character  of  nurse,  interviewed 
the  doctor,  sent  for  a  croup-kettle,  and — this  sort  of 
thing  being  more  in  my  province  and  more  familiar  to 
me  than  cooking  and  making  beds — worked  with  a  will 
to  save  the  little  flickering  life.  This  was,  however,  not 
to  be  granted  me,  and  three  days  after  falling  ill,  the 
once  so  jolly  baby  lay  in  a  little  white  coffin,  wrapped 
in  a  long  lace  scarf  of  mine  which  had  last  done  duty 
at  a  Drawing-room,  and  which  made  an  ideal  shroud 
for  that  poor  little  broken  bud.  The  funeral  still  further 
depleted  my  exchequer;  but  the  loads  of  snowy  blos- 
soms and  the  white  hearse  electrified  the  street,  and 
the  gratitude  of  the  parents  would  have  been  cheap  at 
ten  times  the  amount. 

The  condition  of  the  bereaved  young  mother  soon 
became  so  alarming  that  the  husband  decided  to  send 
for  a  little  nephew,  who  had  just  lost  his  own  mother, 
thinking  thus  to  occupy  her  thoughts  beneficially. 
He  had  not,  however,  reckoned  with  the  distressing 
homesickness  of  the  small  orphan,  and  on  the  very 
first  night  of  its  arrival  was  at  a  loss  what  to  do,  be- 

437 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

tween  his  sobbing  wife,  and  a  poor  little  three-year-old 
who  obstinately  stood  in  a  corner  with  a  continuous 
wail  of  "Mamma!"  on  his  tremulous  lips  and  a  tragic 
look  in  his  big,  black  eyes.  Bertrand,  who  had  gone 
down  to  inquire  why  there  was  no  hot  water  in  the 
bath-room,  took  the  wretched  little  chap  in  his  arms 
and  carried  him  up  to  me.  I  will  draw  a  veil  over 
the  experience  of  the  next  three  days,  chiefly  spent 
by  all  three  of  us  carrying  "Rory" — a  fit  name,  by- 
the-way — up  and  down  the  floor,  as  this  was  the  only 
way  of  making  him  stop  his  everlasting  complaint. 
And  to  this  very  day  I  cannot  think  without  a  shud- 
der of  the  unceasing  "I  want  Muzzer,"  which  was 
droned  in  our  ears  for  at  least  twenty  hours  out  of  the 
twenty-four.  The  child  refused  to  sleep  except  in  the 
lap  of  one  of  us,  and  if  we  did  not  want  him  to  wake  up 
with  a  shriek  we  were  forced  to  keep  up  a  sing-song 
monotone  by  way  of  lullaby,  which  was,  perhaps,  as 
trying  to  the  singer  as  to  the  listeners.  At  last  Ber- 
trand hit  on  a  marvellous  plan,  and  snatching  up  the 
child  ran  down-stairs,  called  a  hansom,  and  took  him 
for  a  long  drive  in  Central  Park.  Whether  it  was  the 
novelty  of  the  thing,  or  the  comparatively  fresh  air — 
for,  Lord  knows,  that  summer  was  truly  infernal — but 
the  poor  little  tyrant  was  conquered  from  that  moment, 
and  gave  no  further  trouble  to  us  or  to  his  relatives  in 
the  basement,  which  was  indeed  a  mercy. 

Meanwhile  our  circumstances  were  not  particularly 
favorable.  Poor  Fred  vainly  patrolled  the  business 
portions  of  the  city  in  quest  of  an  acceptable  position, 
but  everywhere  his  name  and  social  rank  were  a  draw- 
back instead  of  a  help,  the  argument  evidently  being 
that  a  person  of  his  importance  seeking  honest  work 
must  have  some  dark  shadow  over  his  past,  or  some 
darker  motive  in  prospect.  Had  we  remained  at  the 

438 


Windsor  Hotel  imposing  upon  the  credulity  of  the  pub- 
lic at  large,  sponging  upon  our  friends,  and  running 
up  huge  jewellers',  milliners',  and  tailors'  bills,  as  so 
many  stranded  Europeans  have  done,  we  would  have 
succeeded — of  that  there  can  be  no  doubt — in  gaining 
both  profit  and  honor.  But  the  idea  of  paddling  our 
own  little  humble  canoe  and  of  owing  nothing  to  any 
one  was  evidently  preposterous,  and  deserved  the  con- 
tempt with  which  it  was  treated.  The  plain  "Mr."  and 
"Mrs."  which  we  had  substituted  at  once  for  any  loftier 
appellation  did  not  even  help  us  in  this  land  of  democ- 
racy, and,  in  a  word,  the  whole  enterprise  speedily 
became  most  disheartening.  What  money  we  still 
possessed  when  the  crash  came  was  rapidly  dwindling, 
and  although  I  said  nothing  about  it  to  either  of  my 
partners  in  misery,  yet  I  foresaw  the  day  when  there 
would  be  absolutely  nothing  left. 

To  make  matters  yet  more  precarious  and  painful, 
my  mother  deluged  Bertrand  with  bitter  reproaches, 
arriving  by  every  mail  in  highly  scented  envelopes, 
the  persistent  fragrance  of  which  haunted  me  day  and 
night.  She  in  turn  commanded,  supplicated,  threat- 
ened, and  stormed,  and  it  seemed  clear  from  her  state- 
ments that  as  long  as  the  boy  remained  with  us  he 
would  incur  the  displeasure  of  his  entire  family.  But 
stubborn  as  are  all  Bretons,  he  refused  to  be  coerced. 
I  dearly  loved  to  keep  him  with  me,  yet  was  I  not  minded 
to  ingulf  him  with  our  wrecked  prospects  and  to  drag 
him  down  with  us  any  further.  My  position  in  regard 
to  the  matter,  already  sufficiently  difficult,  was  made  still 
more  so  by  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  New  York  was 
not  a  good  one  for  a  boy  who,  born  and  bred  among  the 
highest  aristocracy  of  Europe,  could  not  assimilate  his 
present  surroundings,  jealously  as  I  tried  to  keep  him 
away  from  questionable  associates.  Extremely  lov- 

439 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

able,  remarkably  handsome,  and  generous  to  a  fault, 
poor  Bertrand  was  galled  by  the  sordid  narrowness  of 
our  present  means,  for  until  he  became  of  age,  which 
was  not  to  be  for  three  years,  he  was  dependent  upon 
his  mother,  who  had  cut  off  all  supplies  in  order  to  force 
him  to  defer  to  her  wishes;  and  often  I  looked  at  the 
horrors  the  future  might  hold  for  the  lad,  and  silently 
asked  of  these  shadowy  abominations,  "  What  are  you 
going  to  do  to  him?" 

This  new  sorrow  preyed  on  my  mind  and  on  Fred's 
also.  Like  those  that  had  preceded  it,  it  was,  alas! 
not  of  an  ennobling  kind.  It  fitted  no  wings  to  the  soul, 
as  suffering  often  does,  and  my  efforts  to  guard  my 
dear  brother  seemed  just  then  of  no  avail.  I  was  still 
too  young  to  realize  that  one  cannot  lay  violent  hands 
on  the  soul  of  another  and  thus  lift  it  into  safety. 
I  was  not  feeling  very  well  just  then,  and  my  nerves, 
which  had  until  now  seemed  non-existent,  began  to 
play  me  stupid  tricks.  When  I  was  alone,  in  the  even- 
ing especially,  the  walls  of  the  room  seemed  to  close 
around  me  with  ponderous  relentlessness,  while  a 
nauseating  feeling  of  vertigo  sometimes  overcame  me. 
In  all  my  life  I  had  not  known  such  a  state  of  affairs, 
excepting  before  my  attack  of  typhoid,  and  I  was  cruel- 
ly ashamed  of  it.  At  last  I  made  up  my  mind  to  have 
a  serious  conversation  with  my  brother,  and  summon- 
ing all  my  courage  to  my  assistance,  profited  by  a  mo- 
ment when  Fred  was  absent,  and  sought  the  boy.  I 
found  him  in  the  dining-room  smoking  a  cigarette  and 
looking  excessively  moody. 

"You  have  come  to  scold  me,  I  suppose,"  he  said, 
without  lifting  his  eyes. 

I  looked  at  him  in  silence  for  a  moment,  and  then 
sat  down  beside  him. 

"Well?"  he  said,  at  length,  somewhat  aggressively. 

440 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Well/'  I  repeated,  "I  want  to  warn  you,  Bertrand, 
that  we  are  very  near  the  end  of  our  tether.  There  is 
no  earthly  use  in  bothering  Fred  about  this,  but  the 
fact  is  that,  if  he  does  not  soon  find  work,  we  will 
starve,  to  put  it  baldly!" 

The  boy  looked  up  at  me  with  cool  indifference,  evi- 
dently incredulous,  and  suspecting  me  of  an  ulterior 
motive. 

"Is  that  all  you  have  to  say?"  he  rejoined.  "Be- 
cause if  so  I  will  go  out." 

"  Not  j^et,  please ;  I  have  something  more  to  tell  you," 
I  replied.  "  You  clearly  think  I  am  telling  you  this  in 
order  to  make  you  yield  the  point  and  return  to  Brittany. 
This  is  not  the  case.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  nothing 
could  make  me  happier  than  to  keep  you  here  with  me, 
for  the  depth  of  my  affection  is  nothing  new  to  you. 
But  what  am  I  to  do?  You  accompanied  us  for  a  short 
trip,  undertaken  under  the  most  agreeable  and  au- 
spicious of  circumstances,  but  now  you  are  staying  on 
after  this  alteration  in  our  affairs  and  position.  How 
can  I  involve  you  in  our  privations  and  difficulties, 
especially  since  it  is  distinctly  against  your  mother's 
wishes  that  you  should  remain  here;  and  let  me  add," 
I  said,  meaningly,  "  that  the  atmosphere  of  this  country 
under  the  present  conditions  is  not  beneficial  to  you." 

He  rose,  flushing  scarlet.  "  There  is  nothing  in  my 
conduct  to  cause  you  anxiety,"  he  said,  stiffly. 

"Sit  down,  Bertrand,"  I  rejoined,  quite  as  stiffly. 

"Suppose  I  refuse  to  hear  any  more?" 

"What  is  the  necessity  of  supposing  absurdities? 
But,  as  I  was  saying,  the  time  has  arrived  when  you 
can  hesitate  no  longer,  and  when  you  must  come  to  a 
decision  regarding  your  future.  You  say  that  to  live 
under  the  same  roof  as  our  mother  is  distasteful  to  you, 
and  I  understand,  to  a  certain  extent,  your  position  in 

441 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

the  matter.  But,  on  my  part,  I  am  not  going  to  coun- 
tenance your  sacrificing  the  position  to  which  you 
have  been  born  on  my  account." 

"  Do  you  mean  that  I  am  to  leave  you  in  the  lurch, 
and  return  to  ease  and  luxury,  while  you  are  here  in 
this  abominable  situation?" 

"Exactly;  you  have  quite  grasped  my  meaning, 
although  I  cannot  approve  your  wording  of  it." 

Again  he  rose  from  the  chair  in  which  he  had  re- 
seated himself  at  my  bidding. 

"That  is  all,  I  suppose,  and  now  I  will  go  out/'  he 
said,  with  his  usual  mulish  obstinacy. 

I  was  fast  losing  patience.  "Before  you  go.  you 
will  perhaps  be  good  enough  to  tell  me  what  you  intend 
to  do." 

"What  would  you  have  me  do?"  he  demanded. 

"  You  know  quite  well  what  I  wish.  I  have  already 
told  you  that  I  understand,  after  a  fashion,  your  desire 
to  be  away  from  our  mother.  As  you  have  now  com- 
pletely recovered  your  health,  however,  and  as  it  can- 
not be  supposed  that  your  sick-leave  will  be  indefinitely 
prolonged,  I  want  you  to  resume  your  position  in  the 
navy  and  complete  your  service.  It  would  be  better 
for  you,  even  though,  as  a  widow's  only  son,  you  are 
exempt.  By  the  time  you  have  done  so  matters  will 
have  adjusted  themselves." 

He  remained  silent  for  a  few  moments,  and  then,  as 
I  continued  to  look  inquiringly  at  him,  replied,  sullenly : 

"I  will  do  nothing;  at  least,  for  the  present." 

With  a  violent  effort  I  controlled  my  rising  temper. 

"Look  here,  Bertrand,"  I  said,  turning  my  eyes 
away,  "  you  are  not  acting  fairly  towards  me.  I  meant 
to  give  you  a  mere  affectionate  word  of  warning,  and 
it  is  you  who  are  forcing  me  to  put  it  all  in  capital  let- 
ters. Surely,  we  need  not  rub  each  other  the  wrong 

442 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

way  like  this,  and  it  is  a  great  pity  that  you  should  re- 
fuse to  understand  me,  for  nobody  will  ever  love  you  as 
I  do,  little  one." 

Here  my  voice  broke  slightly,  and  I  hastily  lit  a  cigar- 
ette to  hide  the  unwelcome  softening  of  my  mood.  The 
change  of  tone  did  not  escape  him,  and  he  immediately 
followed  up  his  advantage.  In  quite  an  altered  manner 
he  walked  around  the  table,  and,  with  that  winsome- 
ness  which  he  can  always  assume  at  will,  and  in 
which  he  is  past-master,  said : 

"  I  wish  you  would  not  bother,  dear  old  girl.  So  do 
I  love  you  better  than  all  the  world  put  together,  and, 
really,  I  had  not  the  slightest  idea  that  you  were  wor- 
rying so  much  about  me." 

"Oh,  my  dear,  my  dear!"  I  said,  sorrowfully,  "how 
can  I  help  worrying  when  I  see  you,  through  my  fault, 
declasse,  and  thrown  with  people  whom  you  would  other- 
wise never  have  learned  to  know.  People  whose  tone, 
manners,  and  morals,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  from  what 
you  yourself  tell  me,  are  wholly  and  utterly  contempti- 
ble. At  your  age,  and  with  your  tastes,  this  sort  of  life 
is  impossible.  Do  you  think  that  I  am  going  to  calmly 
sit  down  and  let  you  go  to  the  dogs  by  the  shortest  cut? 
Fred  and  I,  like  the  celebrated  goat  of  legend,  must 
browse  where  we  are  tied,  but  you,  thank  God !  hold  your 
future  in  the  hollow  of  your  hand,  to  make  or  to  mar  as 
you  list.  Do  not  let  me  be  the  cause  of  your  sacrificing  it 
in  more  ways  than  one.  I  have  not  exaggerated  when  I 
told  you  just  now  that  we  are  on  the  limit  which  sepa- 
rates privation  from  downright  want.  Perhaps  I  have 
not  been  wise  in  my  management  of  our  resources.  Let 
my  inexperience  be  the  excuse — if  there  be  any.  Some- 
thing must  be  done  at  once.  This  morning  I  went  to 
a  leading  stationery  -  shop  and  obtained,  under  pre- 
text of  helping  a  little  protege  of  mine,  an  order  for 

443 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

several  dozen  painted  menu  cards  to  be  completed  as 
soon  as  possible.  They  will  pay  my  convenient  protege1 
— to  wit,  myself — two  dollars  a  dozen,  and  they  tell  me 
that  this  is  "  an  excessive  remuneration/'  only  given  be- 
cause the  sample  I  showed  them  is  so  much  better  than 
the  usual  run  of  such  work.  Now,  supposing  Fred 
continues  to  be  unsuccessful  in  his  search,  how  can  we 
live  on  such  a  pittance?" 

"My  poor  Margot,  is  it  really  as  bad  as  that?  Can 
nothing  else  be  done?" 

"Yes,  something  else  can  be  done;  but,  truly,  I  do 
not  know  how  to  break  it  to  Fred." 

"What  is  it?" 

"  Well,  it  is  to  sell,  or  take  to  some  mont-de-pi£t$  or 
other,  a  few  of  my  jewels  or  my  dressing-case." 

"Oh,  rot!"  exclaimed  the  boy,  furiously,  throwing 
his  hammered-gold  cigarette-case  on  the  table.  "  I  am 
not  going  to  let  you  do  anything  so  foolish.  I'll  sell 
my  things,  or  pawn  them,  or  whatever  it's  called,  before 
I'll  allow  that!" 

"But  this  is  what  I  cannot  permit.  You  must  re- 
member that  you  are  not  of  age,  and  that  if  you  were 
to  dispose  of  your  valuables  in  order  to  assist  us,  you 
would  be  putting  the  last  thorn  in  my  crown  of  sor- 
rows." 

He  winced,  and  then,  kicking  away  his  chair,  began 
to  pace  the  floor,  whistling  softly  between  his  closed 
teeth. 

I  felt  my  resolution  failing.  Much  as  I  despised 
myself  for  such  weakness,  once  he  had  shown  me  his 
affection  and  tenderness  I  could  no  longer  urge  him 
to  a  course  contrary  to  his  wishes,  praiseworthy  though 
it  might  be,  and  grasping  thankfully  at  the  side  issue, 
I  suddenly  sprang  to  my  feet,  exclaiming :  "  I'd  like 
to  know  what's  the  matter  with  me!  Am  I  turning 

444 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

into  a  coward?  What  has  become  of  my  backbone, 
and  of  my  much- vaunted  pluck?  You  just  watch  me, 
Bertrand !  I  will  present  to  Fred  the  necessity  of  get- 
ting rid  of  some  of  my  things  in  such  a  way  that  he 
will  think  it  a  good  joke;  and  as  to  you,  my  dearest, 
just  forgive  my  ill-temper  and  my  croakings." 

Gravely  and  quietly  he  drew  me  down  on  the  sofa, 
and,  kneeling  in  front  of  me,  threw  his  arms  about 
my  neck.  He  did  not  speak,  but  he  breathed  rather 
hurriedly,  and  for  a  few  moments  we  remained  per- 
fectly still,  thinking,  no  doubt,  at  a  tremendous  rate. 
Greatly  fearing  lest  his  attitude  should  end  by  break- 
ing my  self-control,  for  I  abominate  emotional  scenes, 
I  rose  to  my  feet  with  almost  brutal  abruptness. 

"We  are  a  couple  of  idiots,"  I  remarked,  irritably. 

At  this  he  laughed  somewhat  shamefacedly,  and, 
after  a  few  minutes  of  awkward  silence,  said : 

"It's  just  like  you,  Margot.  My  behavior  has  been 
abominable,  yet,  instead  of  reproaching  me,  you  give 
me  the  best  and  kindest  of  advice,  and  wind  up  by  apol- 
ogizing, presumably  for  hurting  my  worthless  feelings. 
Dear  old  girl,  I'm  awfully  sorry.  I  swear  I  won't  do 
anything  to  hurt  you  again.  As  for  my  mother,  I'll 
tell  you  what  I'll  do.  All  she  seems  to  want,  the  sweet 
old  lady,  is  to  get  me  away  from  you,  so  I'll  go  West 
as  a  cow-boy,  and,  once  there,  we'll  see  whether  she'll 
give  me  money  to  buy  a  ranch.  It  would  be  a  great 
life  for  me — all  out-doors,  you  know — and  a  splendid 
experience.  Why,  it's  been  my  ambition  ever  since  I 
met  those  jolly  chaps  on  the  voyage  here.  And  you 
needn't  worry  about  me,  old  girl,  I'll  keep  straight." 

Just  then  we  heard  a  latch-key  turning  in  the  door, 
and  Fred  came  in,  looking  hot  and  tired.  There  was 
no  need  to  ask  him  whether,  at  last,  something  had 
"  turned  up,"  and  so  I  contented  myself  with  bringing 

445 


A    DOFFED   CTORONET 

him  a  cup  of  coffee,  with  a  small  glass  of  chartreuse. 
As  soon  as  he  seemed  a  little  refreshed  and  cheered 
I  said,  impressively : 

"  Do  you  think  that  you  two  giants  could,  if  I  made 
it  worth  your  while,  carry  a  heavy  load  a  little  distance 
for  me?" 

Fred  looked  up,  smiling.  "What  are  you  up  to 
now,  little  woman?  Do  you  want  to  open  a  laundry? 
And  must  we  bring  home  the  wash?" 

"  Oh  no ;  your  task  is  to  be  much  more  distinguished, 
for  in  my  high  and  mighty  wisdom  I  have  decided  that 
we  are  dreadfully  imprudent  to  keep  in  this  insecure 
and  promiscuous  place  the  valuables  pertaining  to  our 
past  rank  and  status/' 

"What  do  you  mean?" 

"  Simply  this :  when  we  are  all  three  out  at  the  same 
time,  which  occurs  frequently,  as  you  know,  such  use- 
less and  cumbersome  objects  as  my  dressing-case,  for 
instance,  with  its  highly  ornamental  but  equally  futile 
one  hundred  and  seventeen  pieces,  are  at  the  mercy  of 
the  first  enterprising  person  owning  a  jimmy.  Now 
I  don't  intend  to  store  this  thing,  and  spend  untold 
wealth  in  so  doing.  So  observe  the  brilliancy  of  my 
plan.  You  boys  will  kindly  find  out  for  me  a  safe 
and  honorable  mont-de-piete,  or  preteur-sur-gage —  is  it 
not  what  you  call  a  pawn-shop  in  your  God-forsaken 
language? — and  thus  it  is  I  who  will  receive  money, 
in  place  of  being  obliged  to  disburse  it/' 

"Surely,  Pussy,  it  hasn't  come  to  that?  We  can't 
be  as  hard  up  as  that  yet!" 

"  How  ridiculous  of  you  to  think  so,  Fred ;  but  I  might 
have  thought  as  much  of  you!  Do  you  imagine  that 
if  we  were  really  on  our  last  financial  legs  I  could  laugh 
and  joke  as  I  am  doing?  Don't  I  tell  you  that  I  cannot 
rest  easy  as  long  as  these  costly  things  are  littering 

446 


I    WATCHED   THEM   WALKING   BRISKLY   ALONG   THE   SIDE- 
WALK, SWINGING    BETWEEN    THEM,    BY    ITS 
MAS8IVE  HANDLES,  THE  HEAVY  BOX  " 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

the  place,  and  can  you  blame  me  if  in  our  position, 
which  is  not,  as  you  think,  desperate,  but  merely  one 
which  suggests  prudence,  I  prefer  to  have  a  portion 
of  their  value  in  hand,  rather  than  to  pay  some  one  to 
keep  them  for  me?" 

Serenity  was  returning  to  Fred's  careworn  face,  and 
he  finally  fell  in  with  my  project  in  a  fashion  which 
delighted  me,  for  the  ruse  had  succeeded  beyond  my 
wildest  hopes. 

"  There's  no  time  like  the  present/'  I  continued ;  "and 
so,  my  good,  dear,  and  estimable  partners  in  this  exist- 
ence of  strife,  do  me  the  favor  to  get  ready,  while  I  en- 
tomb bottles,  brushes,  combs,  boxes,  and  what  not,  in 
their  customary  sarcophagus.  And  then  merrily  do 
you  go,  my  lads — for  merriness  you'll  need  in  this  hot 
weather — carrying  a  ton  or  so  of  gold  and  gems." 

Without  giving  them  time  or  leisure  to  make  any 
objections,  I  swiftly  retired  to  the  sanctity  of  my  bed- 
room, and  tenderly  fitted  all  the  pretty  baubles  which 
had  made  my  toilet-table  a  thing  of  beauty  into  their 
purple  -  velvet  niches,  closing  with  a  sharp  click  the 
lock  of  the  large  silver-and-tortoise-shell  casket  contain- 
ing them — a  chef-d'oeuvre  of  Froment  Meurice — and 
lastly,  not  without  a  good  deal  of  muscular  exertion, 
encasing  the  whole  ponderous  affair  in  its  steel-lined, 
tawny  -  leather  case.  When  I  re-entered  the  dining- 
room,  Fred,  looking  up  from  the  newspaper  he  had 
been  perusing,  said,  anxiously : 

"What  is  the  matter,  Pussy?    You  don't  look  well." 

"Why,  I  am  as  right  as  a  trivet,"  I  replied,  quite  re- 
solved to  stick  at  no  mendacity.  "  Don't  become  im- 
aginative, Fred;  I  never  was  better  in  my  life.  I 
eat  like  a  horse,  sleep  like  a  dormouse,  and  have  no 
time  for  sickness  or  worry.  That's  one  of  the  greatest 
advantages  of  our  present  enviable  plight.  But  don't 

447 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

let  us  waste  any  more  time.  Come  to  my  room  and 
shoulder  your  burden — no  light  one,  I  assure  you!" 

A  few  minutes  later  I  watched  them  walking  briskly 
along  the  sidewalk,  swinging  between  them,  by  its 
massive  handles,  the  heavy  box.  This  spoke  well  for 
their  condition,  and  I  smiled  as  I  saw  them  disappear 
around  the  corner.  Then,  taking  up  from  the  denuded 
table  the  jewels  that  I  had  removed  from  the  secret 
drawer  of  the  doomed  dressing-case,  I  said,  with  the 
tiniest  of  sighs,  "Loss  number  one!" 

When  they  returned,  just  in  time  for  dinner,  I  had 
pains  to  conceal  my  disappointment.  The  dressing- 
case  had  originally  cost  thirty  thousand  francs,  but  on 
deposition  at  a  loan-office  it  had  added  to  our  failing  ex- 
chequer only  five  hundred  dollars !  This  was  owing,  we 
were  told,  to  the  fact  that  the  monograms  and  coronets 
diminished  the  chance  of  its  finding  a  ready  sale.  How- 
ever, the  wolf  could  be  kept  from  the  door,  and  Fred  in 
blissful  ignorance  of  the  state  of  our  affairs,  for  some 
time  yet.  So  on  the  whole,  I  went  to  bed  much  more 
contented  in  mind. 


CHAPTER    X 

Beside  the  Nile  his  antique  flow 

I  recked  not  of  the  winter  snow 

That  distant  seemed,  and  far  more  nigh 

The  river  blue  and  golden  sky 

In  those  strange  days  of  long  ago. 

Now  where  the  gulls  wail  to  and  fro 
Across  the  drear  ice-flood  below, 
Think  you  my  thoughts  regretful  lie 
Beside  the  Nile? 

To  the  gray  lift  I  answer  "  No!" 
Is  naught  but  warmth  and  color?    Oh! 
That  in  my  inmost  heart  have  I 
Richer  than  all  the  gold  could  buy, 
That  glittered  in  the  tropic  glow 
Beside  the  Nile  I 

M.  M. 

THE  five  hundred  dollars  which  we  now  possessed 
did  not,  however,  prevent  me  from  setting  to  work  on 
my  menu-painting  venture.  It  was  a  distinct  success 
as  far  as  the  menus  themselves  were  concerned,  for 
with  praiseworthy  enthusiasm  I  let  loose  my  fantasy 
upon  these  little  squares  of  pasteboard  which  had 
hitherto  been  to  me  merely  the  unconsidered  adjuncts 
of  dinner-parties,  to  be  flung  carelessly  aside,  or,  more 
rarely,  preserved  as  mementoes,  but  which  now  I  gar- 
landed with  woodland  blossoms,  tropical  flowers,  tiny 
sea  -  pictures,  birds,  butterflies,  or  impressive  land- 
scapes two  inches  long,  probably  for  those  very  tables 
at  which  I  had  so  recently  dined !  Work  as  hard  or  as 
*»  449 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

well  as  I  could,  however,  the  pay  I  received  was  so 
small  that  my  infinitesimal  earnings  were  no  great 
help,  except  in  so  far  as  they  permitted  me  to  preserve 
my  own  self-respect  by  paying  for  what  little  items  I 
might  personally  require. 

Within  a  week  I  determined  that  this  sort  of  thing 
would  not  do,  and  so  I  sallied  forth  one  morning  and 
offered  my  humble  abilities  in  the  decorative  line  to  a 
wholesale  house  dealing  in  bric-a-brac  of  a  cheap  and 
unsophisticated  sort,  and  was  soon  busy  painting 
white  wooden  blotter-pads,  paper-knives,  thin  silk  sofa- 
cushions,  sachets,  celluloid  photograph -frames,  and 
other  graceless  objects  of  the  same  order  in  a  hurried, 
breathless  way,  forced  upon  me  by  the  small  figure 
paid  for  each.  Early  and  late  I  toiled,  bending  over 
these  absurd  art  treasures  until  a  green-sailed  boat  on 
a  purple  sea,  or  a  black  cabbage-rose  daintily  clutched 
in  a  wooden  nut-cracker,  seemed  natural  and  perfectly 
admirable  objects  to  me,  for  familiarity  breeds  con- 
tempt, and  as  the  wings  of  my  fancy  had  been  clipped 
by  my  new  task-masters,  who — God  forgive  them! — 
provided  me  with  models,  I  lived  in  the  unreal  world 
where  such  monstrosities  are  manufactured  by  the 
gross  for  the  higher  enlightenment  of  slim -pursed 
Christmas  and  birthday  gift  purchasers. 

Poor  Fred  continued  to  pursue  an  ever  more  and 
more  elusive  situation,  and  Bertrand  was  still  with  us, 
although  I  momentarily  expected  him  to  put  into  ex- 
ecution his  cow-boy  project,  and  had  reached  the  point 
where  this  would  have  almost  seemed  desirable,  since 
life  in  New  York,  under  such  circumstances  as  ours, 
was  about  the  most  unfortunate  thing  that  could  have 
befallen  him. 

The  consequence  of  all  this  was  that  I  was  almost 
always  alone,  and  that,  save  for  the  time  I  spent  in  house- 

450 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

work,  which  now  included  the  washing  of  all  the  un- 
starched linen  (which  I  surreptitiously  dried  in  the 
kitchen  for  fear  of  discovery  by  the  janitor  or  tenants  of 
this  "high-toned  apartment"),  I  never  stirred  from  my 
painting-table. 

One  afternoon  a  violent  headache  made  it  impossible 
for  me  to  continue  to  bend  over  a  strange  and  awful 
combination  of  azure  lilacs  and  green  poppies,  meant 
to  adorn  a  most  elaborate  citron-hued  night-robe  case, 
and,  with  the  first  moment  of  genuine  impatience  I  had 
allowed  myself  to  display,  I  flung  my  cheap  little 
brushes  on  the  table,  changed  my  working-dress  for 
a  walking  attire  —  a  triumph  of  Laferriere's  —  and 
marched  briskly  off  to  Central  Park. 

The  morning  having  been  stormy,  there  were  com- 
paratively few  people  in  the  broad,  shady  ollees,  and, 
drawn  by  my  unconquerable  love  for  horses,  I  directed 
my  steps  towards  the  nearest  tan-bark  path.  Just  as  I 
was  about  to  enter  a  narrow  road  which,  at  this  point, 
ran  parallel  to  the  riding-track  for  some  distance,  my 
attention  was  arrested  by  a  solitary  figure — that  of  a 
young  girl  mounted  on  a  big  brute  of  a  sorrel  horse 
which  had  "riding  academy"  stamped  all  over  his 
gaunt  anatomy.  The  poor  little  rider  had  entirely 
lost  control  of  her  ungainly  mount,  that,  profiting  by 
the  inexperienced  hand  on  the  bridle,  was  tossing  his 
big,  bony  head,  trying  to  wrench  himself  free,  and  pas- 
saging, dishing,  and  kicking  up  in  an  exceedingly 
nasty  fashion.  The  girl  had  already  lost  her  stirrup, 
and  was  clinging  convulsively  with  one  hand  to  the 
pommel  of  her  bulky,  inelegant  saddle. 

I  glanced  up  and  down,  and  seeing  nobody  far  or 
near  who  might  be  mistaken  for  an  escort,  I  promptly 
descended  to  the  tan-bark,  and  before  the  horse  had 
time  to  notice  me,  had  taken  firm  hold  of  the  bridle. 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Then,  profiting  by  the  animal's  astonishment  at  this 
unexpected  assault,  I  bade  the  girl  let  herself  slide  to 
the  ground.  Fortunately  she  obeyed  immediately,  and 
as  soon  as  she  was  out  of  the  saddle  I  gave  the  ugly 
beast  a  fierce  jerk  of  the  bit,  which  left  him  in  no 
doubt  as  to  the  change  of  hand.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  be  of  tall  stature  to  do  this,  for  there  is  a  knack 
of  doing  all  things ;  and,  moreover,  a  horse  generally 
understands  at  once  the  sort  of  person  with  whom  he 
has  to  deal. 

It  did  not,  therefore,  astonish  me  to  see  this  unlovely 
specimen  adopt  at  once  an  humbler  demeanor,  and 
although  he  snorted  defiantly,  and  gave  me  a  wicked 
leer  out  of  the  corner  of  a  very  resentful  eye,  he  did 
not  offer  to  do  battle,  and  stood  perfectly  still  beside 
me. 

"Are  you  alone?"  I  asked,  of  the  little,  trembling 
figure  standing  forlornly,  with  blanched  face,  a  few 
paces  away. 

"Yes — that  is,  no.  My  instructor  is  somewhere 
behind.  The  wind  blew  his  hat  off  and  he  got  down  to 
recover  it.  I  can't  imagine  where  he  is." 

My  opinion  of  a  riding-master  who  did  not  know 
enough  to  wear  a  hat-guard,  especially  when,  as  in  this 
case,  he  was  in  charge  of  a  thoroughly  unexperienced 
pupil  and  of  a  hard-mouthed  skate  like  the  one  I 
held,  was  not  long  in  forming,  and,  leading  the  beast 
to  one  side  of  the  path  to  wait  further  developments, 
I  fell  to  stroking  his  nose  with  a  murmured,  "  Pretty 
pet,  you!  Nice  old  boy!  Oh,  you  beauty!"  which 
caused  his  late  rider  to  burst  into  screams  of  girlish 
laughter. 

At  that  moment,  heralded  by  the  thud  of  frantic 
hoofs,  there  appeared  upon  the  scene  an  individual, 
fat,  red-faced,  greatly  excited,  clad  in  a  most  amazing 

452 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

combination  of  tight-fitting,  putty-colored  breeches, 
short,  dark  jacket,  a  yard  or  so  of  iron-clad  collar,  and — 
horror  of  horrors! — a  pair  of  jack-boots  which  bore  a 
ludicrous  resemblance  to  those  of  Don  Caesar  de  Bazan. 
He  rode — or,  rather,  attempted  to  ride — a  replica  of  the 
handsome  nag  described  above,  and  held  in  his  hand 
his  lately  recovered  tile. 

With  much  effort,  a  wild  flapping  of  elbows,  and  an 
apoplectic  flushing  of  his  already  peony-hued  face,  he 
drew  up  alongside,  crying,  at  the  top  of  his  voice :  "  Vat 
iss  de  matter  mit  you?  Did  you  fall?  And  who  is  dot 
lady?  Did  she  pick  you  up?" 

I  had  by  this  time  recovered  from  my  stupefaction 
at  the  sight  of  so  remarkable  a  horseman,  and  my  in- 
dignation getting  the  better  of  my  amusement,  I  said, 
sternly : 

"Small  thanks  to  you  that  I  didn't  have  to  pick  her 
up!  What  do  you  mean  by  risking  the  girl's  life  in 
such  a  fashion?" 

"Egsguse  me,  I  don'd  see  dot  dot  is  any  piznis  of 
yours." 

"All  the  more  reason  for  me  to  do  what  I  did,"  I 
replied,  "  since  you,  whose  business  it  evidently  was, 
neglected  it."  Then,  changing  suddenly  to  emphatic 
German,  I  gave  that  man  a  lecture  that  made  his  thick 
Dutch  blood  retire  precipitately  from  his  congested 
countenance  and  left  him  gasping  with  astonishment. 
I  had  not  noticed  that  during  our  polyglot  squab- 
ble an  elderly  man,  mounted  on  a  splendid  cob  and 
followed  at  regulation  distance  by  a  liveried  groom, 
had  stopped  behind  me,  and  was  taking  in  the  whole 
scene  as  if  he  liked  it;  but  turning  to  address  the 
girl,  who  was  courageously  preparing  to  reascend  her 
mountainous  steed  with  the  help  of  the  now  grovelling 
German,  I  saw  a  pair  of  kindly,  merry  blue  eyes  fixed 

453 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

upon  me  with  such  complete  appreciation  of  the  hu- 
morous side  of  the  situation  that  I  could  not  help  laugh- 
ing, and,  when  pupil  and  "instructor"  had  departed,  I 
was  much  surprised  by  the  nice  old  gentleman's  dis- 
mounting and  approaching  me,  hat  in  hand. 

"I  hope  you  won't  be  offended,"  he  said,  "if  I  thank 
you,  in  the  name  of  the  profession,  for  the  excellent 
tongue-lashing  you  have  just  administered  to  that 
riding-master.  I  know  him.  There  are  many  like 
him  in  New  York,  who  constitute  a  danger  to  the  popu- 
lation at  large  and  the  pupils  intrusted  to  them  in  par- 
ticular. May  I  inquire  whether  you  are  yourself  a 
professional?" 

"No,  a  mere  amateur,"  I  replied,  laughing,  "but  one 
who  is  very  fond  of  horse-flesh,  especially  when  it  is 
not  represented  by  such  sorry  specimens  as  the  two 
that  have  just  left  us.  That's  a  remarkably  fine  cob 
of  yours,"  I  concluded,  glancing  enviously  at  the  beau- 
tiful bay  rubbing  its  velvety  nose  against  its  master's 
shoulder  in  that  tenderly  confiding  fashion  which  its 
kind  only  display  towards  those  who  love  them. 

"Rigoletto?  Yes;  he's  something  to  be  proud  of. 
Goes  like  clock-work,  and  is  the  best  park  hack  Fve 
owned  for  a  coon's  age."  Then  he  added,  with  a  hu- 
morous, inquiring  look,  "He's  for  sale,  you  know." 

"That's  a  pity,"  I  said,  "for  he  suits  you  to  a  T.  I 
would  not  sell  him  if  I  were  you.  You  will  find  diffi- 
culty in  getting  another  cob  built  like  that  one,  that 
will  carry  your  weight  as  easily  as  he  does." 

"H-m!  For  an  amateur,  you're  a  pretty  good  judge 
of  horses,  aren't  you?"  he  responded,  with  a  chuckle; 
then  he  continued:  "Look  here,  ma'am;  I  wish  you 
would  come  back  with  me  for  a  few  hundred  yards.  I 
have  a  little  establishment  here  near  the  Park,  which, 
I  natter  myself,  is  kept  in  apple-pie  order,  and  where  I 

454 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

have  just  now  a  few  nags  well  worth  looking  at.  Strict- 
ly speaking,  I'm  neither  a  dealer  nor  have  I  a  riding 
academy,  but  I  keep  myself  busy  buying  and  selling 
good  horses,  and  I'm  beginning  to  be  pretty  well  known 
here,  though  New  York  is  not  by  any  means  a  sporting 
centre;  but  still  I  have  a  few  clients  who,  when  they 
want  a  good  thing,  come  to  me.  Won't  you  give  the 
place  a  look?  I'd  be  proud  if  you  would." 

Then,  suddenly  remembering  an  omission,  he  fum- 
bled hastily  in  his  pocket,  extracted  a  card-case  adorn- 
ed with  an  enormous  gold  horseshoe,  and  handed  me 

a  card  on  which  was  engraved  "  D.  M.  A n," 

followed  by  his  business  address. 

Now  it  would  be  quite  idle  for  me  to  try  and  conceal 
the  fact  that  a  rush  of  unholy  joy  rilled  my  soul  to  over- 
flowing. I  had  made  a  loyal  effort  to  be  a  good,  hum- 
drum, pains-taking  hausfrau,  and  had  resolutely  put 
aside  every  thought  of  the  sport  that  has  ever  been  my 
greatest  pleasure;  but,  after  all,  we  are  not  obliged 
to  discount  such  little  surprises  as  Fate,  perchance 
kinder  than  we  deserve,  has  in  store  for  us,  and  as  this 
one  had  come  to  me  without  any  effort  of  my  own,  I 
considered  myself  perfectly  justifiable  in  yielding  to  the 
temptation.  Moreover,  the  gray  hairs  and  eminently 
respectable  appearance  of  my  interlocutor  were  too 
convincing  to  admit  of  doubting  his  words.  So  I  ac- 
cepted his  offer  as  simply  as  it  had  been  made. 

A  pleased  expression  overspread  the  ruddy  face  of 
my  new  acquaintance,  who — alas,  poor  fellow ! — prob- 
ably looked  upon  me  as  a  prospective  wealthy  purchas- 
er, thanks  to  the  irreproachably  cut  tweed  suit  I  wore, 
the  big  pearl  solitaires  in  my  ears,  and  the  little  dia- 
mond horseshoe  in  my  white  sporting  tie. 

"Here,  Frank,  take  Rigoletto  home!"  he  called  to 
the  groom,  and  as  soon  as  the  latter  and  the  covetable 

455 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

cob  had  trotted  away,  Mr.  A n  and  myself  set 

off  in  the  direction  of  the  Park  gates,  chatting  in  the 
most  friendly  fashion  about  the  latest  improvements 
in  stable  sanitation,  ventilation,  bits,  saddles,  snaffles, 
training,  racing,  and  other  equally  interesting  topics. 

I  was  much  pleased  with  his  stables,  but  as  the 
hour  was  late  I  could  not  stay  long,  much  to  my  re- 
gret, and  after  receiving  a  pressing  invitation  to  come 
and  try  some  of  the  horses,  or  all  of  them,  at  my 
very  earliest  convenience,  I  shook  hands  heartily  with 

Mr.  A n  and  walked  home,  determined  to  say 

nothing  about  this  to  my  boys,  for  the  present  at  least, 
knowing  well  that  my  little  escapade  would  probably 
not  meet  with  their  approval,  as  they  were  both  re- 
markably punctilious  about  my  becoming  acquainted 
with  any  one  whom  they  themselves  did  not  know,  and, 
moreover,  I  found  a  singular  pleasure  in  this  harmless 
little  secret  remaining  unguessed,  for  already  a  sense 
of  new  possibilities  concerning  my  personal  struggle 
for  life  was  dawning  upon  my  mind. 

That  night  I  stayed  up  till  the  small  hours  in  order 
to  finish  not  only  the  azure  lilacs  and  green  poppies 
already  on  the  ways,  but  several  other  bits  of  similar 
ghastliness  composing  the  last  batch  of  "art- work"  I 
had  undertaken  to  do,  and  next  morning,  a  little  before 
ten  o'clock,  I  walked  into  Mr.  A n's  office  wear- 
ing my  riding-habit  under  a  long  covert  cloth  driving- 
coat,  in  the  pocket  of  which  were  concealed  a  spur 
and  a  new  and  improved  snaffle  of  which  I  had  spoken 
to  him  on  the  previous  afternoon,  and  which  I  had 
bought  in  London  a  few  days  before  my  departure  for 
America. 

A n  greeted  with  evident  delight  my  ready- 

f or- work  attire.  "  That's  right,"  he  cried,  with  a  beam- 
ing smile.  "You  wait  a  moment  and  I'll  have  a  few 

456 


choice  ones  led  into  the  ring  for  your  inspection.  I'm 
clean  crazy  to  see  you  in  the  saddle,  for  you're  just  cut 
out  to  show  off  a  horse. ' '  This  being  the  one  compliment 
which  found  favor  in  my  eyes,  I  followed  him,  well 
pleased,  into  the  stables,  which,  though  not  extensive, 
contained  a  goodly  number  of  well-groomed,  sleek, 
handsome  horses,  attesting  the  judgment  and  ability  of 
their  owner,  and  unstintingly  expressed  my  admiration. 

"Wait  till  you  see  them  moving,"  he  exclaimed, 
and,  shouting  to  a  stableman,  who  stood  at  the  door 
of  a  perfectly  appointed  saddle-room  with  a  polishing- 
steel  in  his  hand,  to  bring  The  Babe  and  Lunatic 
into  the  ring,  and  be  quick  about  it,  he  preceded 
me  into  a  tolerably  large  enclosure,  well  lighted  and 
tan-barked,  where  a  helper  was  plying  a  rake  with  great 
industry.  Pretty  soon  the  horses  made  their  appear- 
ance, and  I  had  the  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  animal  very  appropriately  called  Lunatic, 
who  started  in  to  give  us  a  sample  of  his  temper  by 
doing  his  level  best  to  tear  himself  loose  from  his  at- 
tendant. 

"There's  the  lad  for  you,  if  you're  anything  of  a 
rider,"  laughed  A n.  "Not  one  of  your  easy- 
going, milk-and-water  gentlemen  —  mischievous  as  a 
monkey,  quick  as  a  wink,  and  full  of  ambition,  but 
tvith  his  heart  in  the  right  place,  let  me  tell  you.  Would 
you  like  to  try  him?"  The  last  words  were  pronounced 
with  a  little  doubtful,  sidelong  glance,  which  put  me 
immediately  on  my  mettle. 

"Yes,  I  would,  if  you'll  trust  him  to  me,"  I  replied, 
with  a  smile,  looking  delightedly  at  the  colt,  which, 
though  inclined  to  be  a  trifle  leggy,  with  a  little  too 
much  daylight  under  him,  was,  however,  blessed  with 
a  great  perfection  of  form  and  a  coat  of  satin-like  glossi- 
ness, shining  like  burnished  metal  in  the  sunlight 

457 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

falling    from    lofty  windows    twenty   feet   above   the 
ground. 

"What's  amiss?"  suddenly  asked  A n,  no- 
ticing, with  quick  intuition,  that  I  was  not  altogether 
pleased  with  what  I  saw. 

"Oh,  I  was  only  wondering  why  on  earth  you  dis- 
figure that  beautiful  animal  by  allowing  such  a  long 
tail.  Why  don't  you  dock  it?" 

"  Can't.  It's  the  fashion  here  for  horses  to  carry  long 
fly-dusters,  worse  luck!" 

"If  I  were  you  I  would  teach  them  better,  for  this 
is  thoroughly  unsportsman-like."  I  had  meanwhile 
drawn  nearer  to  Lunatic  and  began  to  pat  his  glossy 
neck,  without  seemingly  taking  any  notice  of  the  de- 
cidedly suspicious  fashion  in  which  he  was  regarding 
me,  and,  determined  that  my  first  should  be  a  master- 
stroke, I  made  use  of  a  little  trick  taught  me  by  an 
old  Cossack  many  years  before,  and  which  is  nothing 
but  elementary  "voltige."  I  put  my  hand  lightly  on 
the  pommel,  and,  taking  the  animal  completely  by  sur- 
prise, vaulted  into  the  saddle. 

The  colt  gave  a  wild  leap  forward,  as  nimbly  as  a 
stag,  and  pricking  up  his  delicate,  tapering  ears,  gath- 
ered his  legs  well  under  him  and  sailed  away  around 
the  ring  in  amazing  style. 

"By  G — d,  that  was  well  done!"  roared  A n, 

standing  stock-still  and  watching  me  delightedly.  I 
laughed  a  little,  and  proceeded  to  put  Lunatic  through 
his  paces.  There  was  really  no  harm  in  him,  and  after 
a  few  minutes  we  came  to  a  very  decent  understanding, 
and  when  I  brought  him  back  to  where  his  owner  and 
the  groom  were  waiting,  I  felt  that  in  a  very  short  time  I 
could  transform  this  ticklish  horse  into  a  lady's  hunter, 
provided  that  lady  could  ride  a  little. 
"Does  he  jump?"  I  asked,  eagerly. 

458 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Oh,  after  a  fashion,  when  he  feels  like  it,"  confessed 
his  owner,  a  little  dubiously.  "  Would  you  like  to  try 
him  over  a  hurdle  or  two?" 

"Yes." 

The  grin  on  A n's  face  broadened.  "  Bring 

the  hurdles,"  he  said  to  the  groom,  and  turning  to 
me,  he  added :  "  You've  got  spirit  enough,  and  that's  a 
fact.  I  think  you  must  have  tried  to  fool  me  when 
you  said  that  you  were  not  a  professional.  Yours  is 
not  amateur  riding,  by  a  long  chalk." 

I  laughed.  "I've  been  in  the  saddle  since  I  was 
three  years  old,"  I  acknowledged,  "and  I  may  as  well 
tell  you  that  horses  have  always  been  my  chief  inter- 
est in  life,  and  that  until  lately  I  owned  a  pretty  good 
stable  of  my  own." 

"Not  in  this  country?" 

"No,  not  in  this  country,  certainly.  I've  been  horse- 
less for  a  few  months,  and  that's  why  I  am  out  of  prac- 
tice a  little  bit." 

"  I  don't  see  any  sign  of  that.  But  here  are  the  hur- 
dles, and  I'm  curious  to  see  how  that  youngster  is  go- 
ing to  negotiate  them  with  a  lady  on  his  back." 

I  needed  no  second  invitation,  put  the  colt  at  a  fast 
gallop,  and  brought  him  without  any  great  difficulty 
to  the  first  leap ;  but  quick  as  lightning  the  treacher- 
ous brute  stopped  and  made  a  t&e  &  queue  with  a  sud- 
denness which  would  have  unseated  me  if  I  had  not 
been  prepared  for  something  of  the  kind.  Now  I  do  not 
believe  in  punishing  horses  until  it  becomes  impossible 
to  do  otherwise,  so  I  trotted  him  back  to  the  starting- 
point,  and  once  more  brought  him  up  to  the  insignifi- 
cant obstacle,  but  he  turned  again  like  a  snake  and  tore 
around  the  whole  extent  of  the  ring  as  if  possessed. 

"This  will  never  do,  my  fine  fellow!"  I  muttered, 
closing  my  teeth,  and  with  methodical  vigor  I  gave 

459 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

him  a  sharp  taste  of  my  hunting-crop.  There  ensued 
a  short  struggle,  but  I  got  the  mastery,  and  Lunatic, 
after  this,  not  only  approached  the  objectionable  hur- 
dles one  after  another  quite  willingly,  but  rose  each 
time  like  a  bird  and  landed  on  the  other  side  with  the 
lightness  of  wind-blown  thistle-down. 

A n's  delight  knew  no  bounds.  "  That 

bucketing  will  do  him  all  the  good  in  the  world,"  he 
cried.  "  There's  no  use  talking,  you  know  what  you're 
about.  Great  Scott!  you  could  ride  the  head  off  the 
devil  1  I'll  tell  you  what,"  he  went  on,  as  I  brought  the 
horse,  all  in  a  lather,  to  a  stand-still  before  him,  "  after 
this  you  have  the  run  of  these  stables,  and  can  have 
any  of  my  horses  to  ride  in  the  Park,  the  ring,  or  the 
open  country  whenever  you  like.  My  word,  but  you're 
a  wonder!" 

"You  are  very  good!"  I  replied,  jumping  to  the 
ground  and  throwing  the  reins  to  the  waiting  groom ; 
"but,  of  course,  I'd  never  dream  of  accepting  such  an 
offer.  I  don't  suppose  you  keep  a  stable  for  my  per- 
sonal gratification." 

"Look  here,  ma'am,"  he  said,  looking  me  full  in  the 
face,  "don't  think  me  impertinent.  I  don't  know  your 
circumstances,  you  see,  and  you  don't  look  as  if  they 
were  very  much  straitened ;  but  is  it  certain  sure  that 
you  would  not  accept  an  offer  from  me — a  handsome 
one,  that  is  —  to  break  in  and  sell  lady's  hacks? 
There's  money  in  such  a  deal — and  lots  of  it,  too — for 
both  of  us." 

I  was  sorely  tempted  to  say  "yes"  at  once,  for  it 
was  just  the  sort  of  thing  I  would  have  loved  to  do,  but, 
somehow  or  other,  I  felt  pretty  certain  that  Fred  would 
object.  And  yet  this  would  give  me  work  not  only  con- 
genial but  lucrative,  and  might  finally  end  in  my  hav- 
ing training  and  boarding  stables  of  my  own.  Lord! 

460 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

what  a  joy  that  would  be !  Strangely  enough,  poor  Fred 
considered  it  a  terrible  humiliation  that  I  should  have 
to  work  at  all,  which  was  really  ridiculous,  for  where 
could  be  the  shame  of  our  having  come  a  financial 
cropper  and  of  my  trying  to  help  him  keep  a  roof  over 
our  heads?  I  did  not  see  things  in  that  light  at  all, 
and  had  always  greatly  admired  the  moral  courage  dis- 
played by  the  Muscovite  Prince  and  Princess  Michael 
H  .  .  .  .  ff ,  who,  similarly  situated,  had  come  to  America 
to  work  for  their  own  support  until  such  time  as  the 
decease  of  relatives  holding  a  life  interest  in  certain 
estates  should  repair  their  fortunes.  They  were  great 
nobles,  and  had  occupied  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and 
enviable  positions  at  the  Court  of  St.  Petersburg,  but 
nevertheless  they  bravely  and  cheerfully  doffed  their 
coronets,  and  while  the  Prince  secured  a  berth,  first  as 
brakeman  and  then  as  fireman  on  the  New  York  Central 
Railroad,  his  beautiful  Princess  took  in  fine  wash- 
ing to  help  him  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  After  a 
long  time  the  then  Czar,  having  heard  of  this  remark- 
able piece  of  renunciation  and  courage,  sent  for  them, 
and  appointed  Prince  H  .  .  .  .  ff  Minister  of  Roads  and 
Communications,  with  a  large  salary.  A  few  years  later 
the  Prince  and  Princess  revisited  this  country,  for 
pleasure  this  time,  and  with  a  view  of  once  more  look- 
ing upon  the  spot  where,  in  spite  of  reverses  and  pri- 
vations, they  had  been  very  happy. 

This  is  by  no  means  the  only  instance  of  aristocrats 
coming  to  New  York,  not  with  the  intention  of  bartering 
an  ancient  name  and  title  for  the  dollars  of  some  Ameri- 
can heiress,  but  because  they  are  eager  to  earn,  unob- 
trusively, an  honest  living  in  a  plucky  and  honorable 
fashion — men  and  women  who  have  been  overtaken  by 
financial  difficulties,  and  who,  destined  to  inherit  vast 
wealth  at  some  later  period,  find  it  impossible  to  go  the 

461 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

pace  to  which  they  have  been  used  while  waiting  for  an 
alteration  in  their  circumstances. 

All  of  them  lay  aside,  on  landing,  all  pretension 
to  rank,  drop  temporarily  whatever  titles  they  may 
possess,  and  determine  to  rely  solely  upon  their  own 
exertions  to  make  their  way  in  a  land  where  they  fondly 
imagine  that  all  men  start  with  the  same  chance  of 
success. 

It  is  sad  to  relate  that  many  of  these  high-minded 
nobles  meet  with  failure,  thanks  to  their  being  unaccus- 
tomed to  the  conditions  of  American  life,  and  ignorant 
of  any  trade  save  those  of  arms  and  diplomacy,  neither 
of  which  constitutes  a  very  useful  equipment  under 
such  circumstances.  Alas !  many  fall  by  the  wayside, 
as  did,  for  instance,  the  great-grandson  of  the  famous 

German  Field-Marshal  von  B r,  who  succumbed 

to  the  effects  of  privation  and  want  in  the  paupers' 
ward  of  a  New  York  hospital,  and  the  brother  of  the 

Right    Honorable    Sir    Henry  D d  W  .  .  .  .  e, 

once  British  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of  Spain,  who 
died  while  serving  as  a  porter  in  a  wholesale  grocery 
store  in  Jacksonville.  That  unfortunate  young  man, 
who  had  graduated  with  honors  from  Oxford,  when 
he  came  financially  to  grief,  emigrated  to  America, 
where  he  was  in  turn  a  dry-goods  clerk,  a  bill-collector, 
and  a  bartender,  before  taking  the  final  position  above 
mentioned. 

It  was  also  while  working  as  night -porter  in  the 
mailing  department  of  a  New  York  newspaper-office 
that  Lord  D d,  weakened  by  consumption  con- 
tracted in  the  exposure  incident  to  his  humble  calling, 
fell  sick  and  died  practically  of  starvation,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  he  was  without  friends,  and  having  quar- 
relled with  his  grandfather,  the  Earl  of  P  .  .  .  h — who 
was  nearly  a  hundred  years  old  and  without  other 

462 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

male  issue — was  too  proud  to  notify  his  relatives  of  his 
condition. 

During  my  own  sojourn  in  New  York  as  a  toiler 
I  once  met  face  to  face,  in  a  little  German  restaurant 
where  we  had  casually  dropped  in  to  lunch,  no  less  a 
personage  than  Prince  Benjamin  R  .  .  .  n,  the  younger 
brother  of  the  chief  of  the  great  Austrian  and  French 
family  of  that  name.  He  had  been  one  of  my  dancers 
at  Vienna,  and  our  mutual  astonishment,  when,  wear- 
ing the  white  jacket  and  apron  of  a  waiter,  he  brought 
me  the  tea  and  sandwiches  that  I  had  ordered,  may  be 
better  imagined  than  described.  He  looked  as  if  he 
could  have  bitten  a  tenpenny  nail  in  two,  for  this  tall, 
round-faced  fellow,  whom  we  had  christened  "Baby" 
at  Court,  had  more  or  less  deserved  his  downfall,  his 
debts  and  follies  having  been  such  that  he  had  been 
disowned  by  his  uncle,  the  head  of  his  house. 

I  have  omitted  to  say  that  when  we  were  in  Chicago 
we  discovered  that  the  head-waiter  at  the  Grand  Pa- 
cific Hotel  was  a  Count  von  G n,  at  one  time  an 

officer  of  the  regiment  of  hussars  which  the  Emperor 
of  Germany  had  commanded  in  person  before  his  ac- 
cession to  the  throne.  On  leaving  the  army  the  Count 
had  gone  out  West  with  the  idea  of  running  a  cattle- 
ranch,  and,  having  lost  all  his  money  in  the  attempt, 
was  forced  to  seek  other  means  of  livelihood. 

Nor  is  this  all ;  but  it  would  take  too  much  space  to  de- 
scribe a  hundredth  part  of  the  histories  of  the  wrecks  and 
ruins  that  have  been  scattered  throughout  the  United 
States,  and  so  I  will  content  myself  with  but  a  few  more 
instances,  one  of  which  concerned  a  cousin  of  Fred's, 

the  German  Count  F  .  .  .  k  von  F n,  who 

labored  as  the  driver  of  a  Belt  Line  car  for  many  months, 

and  another,  Count  V  ....  r  C e,  the  son  of 

one  of  Emperor  Francis  Joseph's  favorite  aides -de- 

463 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

camp,  who  actually  begged  his  bread  for  a  time  on 
the  streets  of  New  York,  having  become  disabled  by 
a  fracture  of  the  right  arm  while  working  as  a  com- 
missionaire. A  few  years  later  the  Count,  who  had 
meanwhile  inherited  some  money  and  returned  to  his 
own  land,  was  sent  to  Washington  as  Austro  -  Hun- 
garian Charge"  d'Affaires,  and  his  feelings  during 
his  time  of  office  must  have  been  singular,  when  he 
remembered  how  recently  he  had  been  a  footsore  and 
weary  member  of  the  great  American  Wandering  Will- 
iam fraternity. 

Few  persons  have  any  idea  of  the  amount  of  Old 
World  romance  that  is  hidden  away  in  the  East  Side 
of  New  York,  and  in  the  poorer  districts  of  Brook- 
lyn and  Harlem.  Indeed,  it  would  require  the  pen  of  a 
Dickens  to  describe  the  final  acts  of  many  an  aristo- 
cratic tragedy  which  is  carefully  concealed  in  the  meaner 
streets  of  democracy's  greatest  city,  for  it  is  precisely 
those  whose  career  and  antecedents  are  of  the  most 
intensely  dramatic  character,  whose  rank  is  of  the  lofti- 
est and  whose  path  was  the  most  brilliant,  who  are  at 
the  greatest  pains  to  conceal  their  identity  and  the 
temporary  or  final  eclipse  of  their  fortunes  from  the 
prying  gaze  of  the  curious. 

Witness  the  case  of  that  young  nobleman,  a  grand- 
son of  a  celebrated  statesman,  who  fell  sick  and  died  in 
the  hospital  unidentified,  for  he  had  pawned  his  very 
clothes  in  order  to  obtain  food.  When  his  relatives  be- 
came alarmed  at  his  prolonged  silence,  and  attempted  to 
discover  his  whereabouts  with  the  help  of  the  consular 
service  and  various  detective  agencies,  he  was  finally 
discovered  as  an  empty  skull  and  a  few  bare  bones  on 
the  dissecting-slates  of  a  medical  college. 

This  digression  has  carried  me  far  from  my  subject, 
although  it  was  suggested  thereby,  for  I  thought  then, 

464 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

as  I  think  to-day,  that  it  is  when  aristocrats  scorn  the 
benefits  which  might  accrue  to  them  from  the  posses- 
sion of  an  empty  title,  and  voluntarily  renounce  such 
privileges  to  work  for  their  own  bread,  that  they  show 
themselves  thoroughbreds,  and  not  when  they  become 
toadies  and  fortune-hunters — the  last  and  most  pitiable 
stage  of  degradation. 

I  felt  quite  certain,  moreover,  that  I  had  it  in  me  to 
succeed  as  a  horse-trainer,  all  the  more  that  in  a  new 
country  a  feminine  trainer  would  be  a  novelty  and  an 
attraction.  In  those  days  Americans,  in  spite  of  their 
undeniable  fondness  for  horses,  understood  but  little 
about  their  management  and  general  handling,  women 
especially  being  then  a  veritable  eyesore  in  the  saddle. 
Those  I  saw  in  the  Park,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
indulged  in  fluttering  ribbons,  ludicrous  head-gear, 
saddle-pads  of  garish  patterns,  and  elaborate  whale- 
bone whips  with  silken  lashes  and  extraordinary  jew- 
elled knobs  which  reminded  one  of  old-fashioned  circus 
equestriennes.  Their  riding,  too,  was  mostly  execra- 
ble, belonging  neither  to  the  correct  and  conven- 
tional haute-ecole  nor  the  free-and-easy  cross-country 
style,  but  a  ridiculous  mixture  of  both,  intermingled 
with  clumsy  timidity  and  a  considerable  amount  of 
pose  and  "side."  Indeed,  they  were  justly  described 

by  my  friend  A n  as  "calamities  on  castors," 

a  bit  of  colloquialism  which  enchanted  me. 

The  amazing  success  achieved  in  horse-breeding  and 
training  by  a  very  dear  friend  of  mine,  Princess  "  Au- 

guste"  M t,  flashed  across  my  mind  as  I 

walked  home  through  the  dingy  New  York  streets, 
cogitating  over  A n's  offer. 

There  appeared  once  more  before  my  eyes  the  bleak 
Polish  country-side  across  which  I  had  so  often  guided 
a  four-in-hand  or  a  pair  of  restive  trotters  over  narrow, 

jo  465 


ill-kept  roads,  deeply  furrowed  in  mud  or  hardened  by 
early  frost.  1  seemed  to  feel  again  the  searching  No- 
vember winds,  whistling  through  shaggy  pine-branches 
and  rattling  the  denuded  twigs  of  the  birches  meeting 
high  above  my  head  in  confused  tangles,  with  their 
harsh  outlines  continuously  traversed  by  great  flights 
of  ravens  winging  their  hurried  flight  towards  the  dis- 
tant ranges  of  the  Carpathian  Mountains  under  dun- 
colored  skies.  Once  more  I  saw  the  long,  straggling 
stone  buildings  fronting  on  an  immense  yard,  which 
was  entered  by  a  heavy  granite  archway,  surmounted 
by  a  carven  coat  of  arms  and  a  princely  coronet. 

I  saw  the  long  rows  of  open  stable  doors,  the  large 
forge  in  full  swing,  and  the  yards  and  huge  hay-stacks 
in  the  middle  distance,  bespeaking  scrupulous  care  and 
a  practical  comprehension  of  stud-farming.  And  what 
about  the  Princess  herself?  She  was  tall  and  slender, 
with  a  delicately  cut,  slightly  aquiline  face,  almost  inno- 
cent of  wrinkles — although  she  was  then  over  fifty  years 
of  age — a  healthy-looking  skin  tanned  to  a  clear  amber, 
a  square,  determined  chin  and  white,  even  teeth.  Clad 
in  shooting-jacket  and  serviceable  riding-breeches,  ad- 
mirably fitting  riding-boots,  and  a  broad-brimmed,  soft 
felt  hat — a  costume  she  had  adopted  as  being  more  con- 
venient than  even  the  shortest  of  skirts  for  the  prosecu- 
tion of  her  beloved  hobby — she  was  always  in  or  about 
the  yards,  personally  overlooking  every  detail  of  her 
vast  establishment. 

What  a  witty  and  amusing  woman  she  was,  and, 
when  once  launched  upon  her  favorite  topics,  how  en- 
tertaining! She  professed  the  most  withering  con- 
tempt for  the  ordinary  type  of  sportswomen,  declaring 
that  they  knew,  generally  speaking,  as  much  about 
the  points  of  a  horse  as  they  did  about  the  composi- 
tion of  the  fixed  stars,  and  never  hesitated  to  declare 

466 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

that  that  particular  portion  of  the  fair  sex  which  is  in- 
clined to  be  horsy  par  genre  and  without  a  real  love 
of  the  thing,  is,  as  a  rule,  more  disreputable  and  ob- 
noxious than  any  shady  Jockey,  bookie,  or  even  welsher 
belonging  to  the  outside  edge  of  the  ring. 

Princess  "Auguste"  was  the  fourth  daughter  of 

Count  Julius  Max  M t,  who,  at  the  imminent 

peril  of  his  life,  had  rescued  the  widowed  Princess 
Charles-Emmanuel  of  Savoy  from  the  flames  that  de- 
voured the  Austrian  Embassy  at  Paris  on  the  night  of 
the  gala  ball  given  by  the  then  Ambassador,  Prince 
Schwartzenberg,  in  honor  of  Napoleon  I.'s  wedding 
with  Archduchess  Marie  Louise. 

The  Count  was  at  that  time  only  nineteen  years  of 
age,  and  so  handsome  that  the  young  royal  widow  fell 
desperately  in  love  with  him,  and  proved  her  gratitude 
by  marrying  him  and  securing  his  elevation  to  the 
rank  of  Prince.  In  spite  of  his  youth  he  was  a  devoted 
step-father  to  her  little  children,  one  of  whom,  by-the- 
way,  was  afterwards  King  Charles  Albert  of  Sardinia, 
and  another  the  mother  of  Archduke  Rainer  of  Austria. 

From  him  my  friend  Princess  "Auguste"  had  evi- 
dently inherited  her  dauntless  courage,  to  which  she 
added  a  certain  amount  of  eccentricity,  for  this  enor- 
mously wealthy  noblewoman,  good-looking  and  ex- 
tremely gifted,  held  herself  persistently  aloof  from  her 
peers  and  devoted  her  entire  life  to  horses.  She  lived 
like  an  anchorite,  not  from  any  motive  of  avarice,  but 
because  her  personal  tastes  were  surprisingly  simple. 
Charitable  to  a  fault,  the  welfare  of  her  tenants  and 
peasantry  was  of  paramount  importance  to  her,  and  a 
large  part  of  her  income  was  expended  in  the  promo- 
tion of  their  health  and  comfort. 

Her  success  with  horses  was  phenomenal,  and  I 
do  not  think  there  was  anything  on  four  feet  which 

467 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

she  could  not  ride  and  master,  her  methods  being, 
however,  singularly  gentle  and  coaxing  for  such  a 
strong-minded  woman. 

Why  should  I  not  also  achieve  a  similar  success,  al- 
though being  without  capital?  There  could  be  no  great 
possibility  of  comparison  between  her  past  achievements 
and  my  future  ones,  yet  a  spirit  of  emulation  rose  in 
me ;  but  I  was  far  too  wise  to  broach  the  subject  to  my 
lord  and  master,  or  even  to  Bertrand,  for  the  present. 

Affairs  were  adopting  a  rather  grim  aspect  for  us. 
Foolishly  enough,  I  had  sent  back  by  diplomatic  valise 
my  more  valuable  jewels  to  the  care  of  trustworthy 
hands,  and  little  by  little  the  lesser  luminaries  of  my 
jewel-box  followed  in  the  track  of  the  dressing-case. 
Once  more  the  wolf  was  at  the  door,  though  I  muzzled 
him  most  carefully  when  the  boys  were  present.  De- 
spair was  beginning  to  gnaw  at  my  heart,  for  it  took 
all  my  sagacity  to  continue  paying  the  rent  and  to 
furnish  plain,  simple  meals  for  Fred  and  Bertrand, 
from  which,  long  ere  this,  all  recherche  morsels  had  dis- 
appeared. 

Fred,  who  did  not  realize  any  more  than  Bertrand  the 
recent  urgency  of  the  situation — for  of  late  I  had  taken 
the  disposal  of  my  valuables  into  my  own  hands — used 
to  say  that  I  had  become  altogether  too  grave  and  de- 
termined. "A  regular  Duke  of  Wellington  in  petti- 
coats/' he  would  say,  laughing;  and  little  did  he  know 
that  this  unwonted  sternness  was  my  only  safeguard 
against  a  general  and  most  inglorious  breakdown. 

Whenever  I  could  I  made  a  point  of  spending  a  couple 

of  hours  or  so  at  A n's,  working  in  the  ring 

with  a  will,  or  taking  "young  'uns"  out,  followed  by  a 
groom  gotten  up  in  first-class  Hyde  Park  Corner  style. 
My  exquisitely  fitting  Busvine  habit  and  my  Lincoln 
and  Bennet  stovepipe  hat  created  quite  a  sensation, 

468 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

and,  thanks  to  them,  and  perhaps,  also,  a  little  to  my 
handling  of  the  horses,  I  was  the  direct  cause  of  the 
"  governor's  "  making  several  advantageous  sales. 

And  that  is  where  I  showed  myself  a  fool,  for,  al- 
though the  sides  of  my  purse  touched,  I  refused  to  ac- 
cept the  commissions  which  were,  after  all,  most  hon- 
orably due  to  me,  because  I  could  not  stomach  the  idea 
of  receiving  money  for  a  service  which  was  at  the  same 
time  so  great  a  pleasure. 

I  witnessed  many  funny  incidents  at  A n's, 

one  of  which,  in  particular,  I  shall  not  soon  forget, 
for  I  laughed  as  I  had  not  laughed  for  months,  and 
felt  almost  as  though  I  were  again  well  fed  and  hap- 

py.  One  morning  A n  told  me  that  the  wife 

of  an  enormously  wealthy  and  successful  brewer,  who 
was  trying  to  take  society  by  storm,  would  arrive  in 
a  few  moments  to  select  a  Park  hack.  She  had,  it 
seems,  been  told  that  horsiness  was  a  sine  qua  non  of 
elegance  and  social  excellence,  and,  resolving  to  become 
at  once  a  perfect  horsewoman,  was  fresh  from  a  course 
of  twenty -four  riding  -  lessons  at  an  academy  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Park. 

"She  wants  to  see  some  horses  ridden  by  a  lady," 

explained  A n,  with  visible  embarrassment, 

busying  himself  with  his  cigar-case  as  he  spoke  in  a 
fashion  that  made  me  smile. 

"Well,  what's  the  matter  with  my  showing  her 
those  you  have  on  hand?"  I  exclaimed.  "Don't  I  ride 
well  enough?" 

"That  isn't  it,  that  isn't  it,"  muttered  he;  "but  a 
Woman  like  you,  who  looks  one's  hat  off,  is  not  the 
kind  one  likes  to  ask  to  trot  out  cattle  for  a  person  of 
my  new  customer's  sort.  I  should  have  to  be  nine 
varieties  of  a  born  fool  not  to  know  pretty  well  by  this 
time  what  you  are — or  thereabouts;  and  that  breweress, 

469 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

in  spite  of  her  avoirdupois,  is  what  might  be  called  one 
of  Heaven's  light- weights  I" 

"  Oh,  don't  talk  nonsense,  Mr.  A n.  I  am 

only  too  glad  to  oblige  you  if  I  can,  and  if  the  breweress 
proves  disagreeable  I  will  give  her  a  file  to  gnaw,  as 
you  say  over  here.  Meanwhile,  if  you  will  permit  me, 
I  will  just  exercise  Skylark  while  waiting  for  this  dis- 
tinguished patron  of  yours." 

The  black  colt  mentioned  was  much  on  the  pattern 
of  the  now  long  -  since  -  sold  Lunatic.  He  was  ner- 
vous and  inclined  to  cut  up  rough,  and  engrossed  my 
attention  so  completely  that  I  forgot  all  about  the 
brewing  equestrienne  that  was  to  be,  and  was  com- 
pletely taken  by  surprise  when  Pat,  the  head  groom, 
ran  round  to  where  I  was  endeavoring  to  make  that 
devilish  "young  un"  understand  the  A  B  C  of  his 
equine  education,  and  told  me  that  "the  governor" 
sent  his  compliments,  and  would  I  come  to  the  upper 
end  of  the  ring  for  a  moment? 

I  turned  Skylark  round  and  trotted  him  towards 
a  group  on  the  wooden  steps  leading  down  to  the 
ring,  which  included  a  fat,  red-faced  woman,  a  thin, 
shy-looking  girl,  a  gorgeously  liveried  footman  bear- 
ing himself  like  a  South  American  parrot,  and  poor 
A n  himself,  who  seemed  greatly  distressed. 

The  fat  dame  looked  superciliously  at  me  through 
a  long-handled,  jewelled  lorgnette,  saying,  in  a  loud 
whisper,  "Professional,  of  course?"  The  wretched 
"governor's"  comely  features  assumed  the  hue  of  a 
freshly  boiled  lobster,  and  he  hastened  to  my  side,  hat 
in  hand. 

"I  hate  to  ask  you,"  he  said,  "but  would  you  very 
much  mind  riding  Little  Boy  Blue  for  a  few  minutes, 
just  to  show  this  party  what  he  can  do?" 

"I  don't  mind  at  all;  I  think  it  amusing,"  I  replied, 

470 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

heroically  repressing  the  laughter  which  rose  in  me  at 
the  thought  of  the  figure  that  pudding-shaped  woman 
would  cut  on  the  dainty  thoroughbred's  back,  should 
she  be  so  imprudent  as  to  venture  herself  there,  and, 
beckoning  Pat  to  follow  me,  I  galloped  off  to  the  stables. 

When  I  came  back,  madame  and  her  retinue  were 
standing  by  the  mounting-block,  but  I  took  no  ap- 
parent notice  of  her,  and,  entering  into  the  spirit  of  the 
thing,  made  use  of  one  of  the  tricks  of  the  trade  by 
letting  Pat  display  the  graces  of  an  elderly  chestnut 
mare,  which  he  had  hastily  bestridden,  while  I  ap- 
peared entirely  absorbed  in  the  delicate  management 
of  Little  Boy  Blue,  who,  in  conscious  pride  of  his  own 
beauty,  tossed  his  delicate  head  from  side  to  side,  and 
used  his  perfect  legs  like  a  ballet-dancer. 

After  a  few  turns  around  the  ring,  I  called  A n 

to  my  side  and  asked  him  what  I  was  to  do  next. 

"Confound  the  woman,"  he  said,  wrathfully,  "she 
wants  to  see  you  on  the  chestnut  mare,  but  I'm  going 
to  tell  her  you're  not  here  to  satisfy  her  whims.  She 
is  a  gump.  She  looks  as  if  she  had  a  digestion  equal 
to  disposing  of  poached  bath-towels,  and  she  certainly 
has  cheek  to  match." 

"  Don't  tell  her ;  please  don't !  Anything  to  oblige  a 
lady,  my  dear  sir.  I  will  change  saddles  with  Pat,  and 
sell  her  Molly,  if  I  can,  for  it  cuts  me  to  the  heart  to 
think  of  her  owning  Little  Boy  Blue. " 

"  You  get  too  much  attached  to  horses.  It's  a  great 
drawback  in  trade.  Business  first,  you  know." 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so,"  I  said,  wearily,  sliding  to  the 
ground  and  holding  the  beautiful  colt  while  his  girths 
were  being  unbuckled  by  his  special  attendant.  For 
the  next  half -hour  I  showed  off  the  mare,  and  with 
exemplary  patience — that  is,  for  me — endured  the  ab- 
surd remarks  and  questions  of  the  female  leviathan 

47i 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

who  coveted  her.  At  last,  in  answer  to  a  more  than 
permissibly  idiotic  demand,  I  said,  without  moving  a 
muscle : 

"I  assure  you,  madame,  that  Molly  will  give  you 
every  satisfaction.  She's  warranted  to  carry  a  lady, 
draw  a  bicycle,  or  go  on  roller-skates,  if  need  be.  She's 
the  very  thing  for  you." 

Much  to  my  astonishment  the  would-be  sports- 
woman, far  from  taking  offence  at  my  words — which 
I  regretted  before  they  were  well  out  of  my  mouth — 
accepted  them  as  part  of  her  many  novel  experiences, 
and  merely  exclaimed : 

"  Dear  me,  how  wicked  to  give  a  Christian  name  to  a 
brute  beast!  Couldn't  it  be  changed  if  I  decide  to  buy?" 

"  Certainly,  madame,  certainly!"  broke  in  A n, 

with  a  mercantile  smile,  which  made  me  positively 
angry.  "You  can  call  her  anything  you  please,  al- 
though it  is  not  customary  to  alter  the  names  of  pedi- 
gree horses." 

Molly  a  pedigree  horse !  I  could  hardly  restrain  my 
unholy  joy  at  the  tallness  of  the  fib.  Lord,  how  he  was 
going  to  stick  her! 

"I'd  like  to  try  her,  then/'  was  the  sudden  and  most 
unexpected  rejoinder. 

"Try  her,  by  all  means,"  I  said,  shaking  with  sup- 
pressed laughter.  "But  hadn't  you  better  first  go 
home  and  put  on  a  riding-habit?" 

This  suggestion  was  made  in  the  very  innocence  of 
my  soul,  and  I  nearly  fell  from  the  mare's  broad,  ser- 
viceable back  when  the  lady  answered,  indignantly : 

"Well,  and  ain't  this  habit  good  enough,  then? 
What  would  you  have  me  wear?" 

"Oh,  nothing,  nothing  more  elaborate,  I'm  sure! 
Pardon  me,  I  am  a  little  near-sighted  and  thought  you 
were  dressed  for  the  carriage." 

472 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Truly  the  mistake  was  excusable,  for  who  would 
have  dreamed  of  connecting  the  befogged  and  em- 
broidered maroon  cloth  gown,  falling  in  generous  folds 
from  the  immense  hips  to  the  -ponderous  flat  feet,  with 
the  requirements  of  the  saddle.  My  amusement  was 
intensified  by  a  muttered  remark  from  Pat  which  I 
caught. 

"May  you  be  twenty  years  in  heaven  before  the 
devil  knows  you  are  dead,"  he  said,  looking  at  me,  this 
curious  valediction  nearly  upsetting  my  hard-won  equa- 
nimity, which  was  further  endangered  by  the  ex- 
traordinary fashion  in  which  " "  hoisted  herself 

from  the  mounting-block  into  the  saddle.  She  was  so 
coquettish  about  it,  too,  indulging  in  small  bursts  of  girl- 
ish laughter  as  if  she  were  being  tickled,  and  looking 
archly  at  A n,  with  evidently  a  pleasant  con- 
sciousness of  her  personal  charms,  and  of  the  impres- 
sion which  they  must  surely  produce  upon  any  male 
onlooker. 

In  harsh,  commanding  tones,  however,  she  bade  the 
cockatoo  hand  her  her  whip — a  most  dangerous  weapon 
in  such  hands — and,  in  yet  more  contemptuous  tones, 
ordered  her  meek  companion  to  mind  "darling  Fido," 
a  horrible  little  hairy  terrier  that  I  had  not  noticed  be- 
fore, but  which  the  poor  dependant  dutifully  picked 
up  and  fell  to  petting  with  a  cringing  subservience  piti- 
ful to  behold. 

"Bless  my  soul,  she'll  kill  herself!"  growled 
A n,  after  one  glance  at  the  leviathan  pick- 
ing up  her  reins  with  a  jerk  that  made  Molly  snort 
and  pull  at  her  bit.  I  thought  as  much  myself,  and  as, 
fortunately,  a  groom  had  just  brought  into  the  ring 
another  horse  with  a  side-saddle  in  case  Molly  failed 
to  suit,  I  hurriedly  mounted,  and,  catching  up  with 
the  adipose  rider,  took  charge  of  affairs. 

473 


A'  DtfFFED    CORONET 

"Allow  me,"  I  said,  bending  sideways  towards  her 
and  readjusting  the  reins,  while  talking  soothingly  to 
the  alarmed  mare. 

"Don't  I  hold  'em  right?  That's  how  they  showed 
me  to.  But  perhaps  you're  more  difficult  to  please 
than  men-teachers,"  panted  madame,  upon  whom  the 
riding-ring  jog-trot  was  already  telling. 

I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  be  amiable,  or  to  die  in 
the  effort,  and  so,  instead  of  leaving  her  impertinent 
remark  unanswered,  I  went  to  the  trouble  of  giving 
her  a  regular  riding-lesson,  judiciously  sprinkled  with 
little  words  of  praise,  which  it  cost  me  something  to 
utter,  and  at  the  end  of  half  an  hour  I  had  the  gratifi- 
cation of  hearing  her  accept  A n's  steep  price 

for  Molly  without  a  murmur. 

Turning  to  me,  as  soon  as  the  transaction  was 
brought  to  a  satisfactory  end,  she  delivered  herself  of 
this  remarkable  statement : 

"  I  like  your  \vay  of  teaching,  young  woman.  I  think 
you  had  better  arrange  to  give  me  lessons  three  times  a 
week,  and  I  don't  mind  paying  you  a  trifle  more  than 
I  did  at  the  academy,  money  being  no  object  to  me 
when  I'm  pleased.  Here's  for  to-day,  anyhow,"  and 
she  thrust  into  my  hand  a  crisp  five-dollar  bill. 

I  thought  A n  would  have  had  a  fit.  He 

fairly  stamped  his  foot.  "Good  Heavens,  madame, 
this  lady  is  not  a  professional  or  a  teacher.  I've  told 
you  so  already.  She  is  a  lady  as  much  as  yourself!" 

"Thank  you,  Mr.  A n,"  I  said,  with  a  bow 

and  smile  testifying  my  gratitude. 

The  dealer  floundered  helplessly,  and,  to  cover  the 
embarrassment  of  the  moment,  I  turned  to  Pat,  who, 
grinning  all  over  his  good-humored  Irish  face,  was 
taking  in  the  situation,  and  handed  him  the  five  dol- 
lars— a  sum  which  I  had  not  been  able  to  keep  in  its 

474 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

entirety  for  a  good  many  weeks  —  saying,  mischiev- 
ously :  "  Madame  wishes  you  to  accept  this  to  bind  the 
sale,  Pat." 

"The  idea!"  snarled  the  leviathan.  "That's  real 
wicked  waste,"  and  she  flounced  off,  accompanied  by 
A n,  to  whom  she  gave  directions  about  send- 
ing poor  old  Molly  around  to  her  stables,  as  if  the  beast 
had  been  a  bag  of  bonbons  or  a  dozen  of  gloves. 

The  results  of  my  interesting  myself  in  A n's 

affairs  were  so  satisfactory  to  himself  that  one  fine  day 
he  once  more  made  me  an  offer  to  enter  into  a  sort  of 
partnership  with  him,  and  at  such  advantageous  terms 
that  I  promised  him  to  think  the  matter  over.  I  had 
never  let  him  know  anything  at  all  about  myself,  ex- 
cept that  I  was  married  and  living  with  my  husband 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  that  I  had  not  as  yet  men- 
tioned to  the  latter  my  little  equine  escapades,  for  fear 
of  arousing  his  ever-alert  fears  on  my  account.  The 
time  had  now  come,  however,  when,  if  I  had  any  seri- 
ous intentions  of  accepting  A n's  proposal,  it 

would  become  necessary  to  divulge  the  matter  and 
to  tell  Fred  and  Bertrand  what  I  had  been  doing.  I 
nevertheless  continued  to  decorate  ridiculous  objects  of 
virtu,  and  even  attained  a  proficiency  in  this  line  which 
made  me  hope  that  I  would  be  finally  able  to  make,  if 
not  a  living,  at  least  quite  a  little  income  in  this  way 
if  I  persevered ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  my  heart  was 
set  upon  horses,  and  I  could  not  for  the  life  of  me 
give  up  the  idea  of  earning  my  bread  by  my  skill  with 
them. 

Matters  were  at  this  pass  when  suddenly  Bertrand 
announced  to  me  that  he  had  managed  to  obtain  a 
letter  of  credit,  thanks  to  his  possessing  a  sum  of 
money  which  he  had  inherited  shortly  before  from  a 
distant  relative,  and  which  he  had,  by  letter,  induced 

475 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

his  guardian  to  allow  him  to  make  use  of  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  partnership  in  a  ranch  on  the  confines  of 
Colorado.  The  only  stipulation — and  that  made  by 
his  mother,  who  evidently  feared  that  the  boy  would 
offer  to  help  us  —  was  that  the  letter  should  only 
be  presentable  at  a  bank  in  Denver.  She  attributed 
his  prolonged  absence  from  home  entirely  to  our  in- 
fluence, and  was  so  bitterly  incensed  that  once  again 
the  breach  between  her  and  myself,  which  had  been 
almost  bridged  over,  was  more  than  ever  impassable. 

I  had  tried  to  induce  her  to  allow  me  to  collect  a  por- 
tion of  the  rents  accruing  from  some  valuable  farms  left 
in  trust  to  her  for  me,  with  the  understanding,  however, 
that  it  was  optional  for  her  to  allow  me  the  usufruct 
thereof.  She  had  availed  herself  of  this  option  to  cut 
off  those  revenues  when  I  married  Fred,  although  until 
then  I  had  always  drawn  them.  It  was  these  lands  to 
which  I  have  once  alluded  as  "  unproductive,"  meaning 
thereby  that  it  was  very  doubtful  whether  she  would 
ever  consent  to  let  me  draw  a  single  cent  therefrom. 
And,  indeed,  she  flatly  refused  to  "let  me  have  more 
money  to  waste,"  as  she  kindly  put  it. 

My  old  manoir  of  K t,  with  its  broad  lands 

and  salt-marshes,  just  about  paid  for  itself,  the  estate 
being  a  large  and  costly  one  to  keep  up,  and  I  there- 
fore was  not  a  whit  the  richer  because  I  owned  it.  All 
my  remaining  jewels  were  now  pledged,  and  I  saw 
every  day  more  clearly  that  the  idea  of  continuing  in 
our  present  little  home  was  an  impossibility,  but  since 
Bertrand  was  on  the  point  of  departure,  I  infinitely 
preferred  to  let  him  go  away  under  the  impression  that 
our  situation  was  far  from  a  desperate  one,  rather  than 
place  him  in  a  position  where  he  might  suggest  means 
to  help  us  which  we  never  would  have  dreamed  of 
accepting. 

476 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Another  drawback  of  which  I  did  not  want  to  speak, 
any  more  than  I  did  of  the  others,  was  that  my  health 
began  at  that  time  to  be  far  from  good,  which  surprised 
me  greatly,  for,  apart  from  my  terrible  attack  of  typhoid 
in  Cairo,  I  had  always  been  as  sound  as  a  bell,  and 
could  not  account  for  the  feeling  of  languor  and  mis- 
ery which  made  life  a  burden  to  me. 

Bertrand's  leave  of  absence  from  the  navy  having 
been  indefinitely  prolonged  by  the  help  of  powerful 
influences  and  doctors'  certificates,  the  lad  finally  left 
us,  and  bitter  was  my  distress  when,  on  one  oppres- 
sive, sultry  summer  evening,  he  bade  me  good-bye, 
and,  accompanied  by  Fred  and  the  faithful  Jim,  who 
had  joyfully  responded  to  his  summons,  started  on 
his  long  journey.  I  can  distinctly  remember  that  as  I 
watched  them  disappearing  at  the  corner  of  the  street, 
a  piano-organ  began  to  play  a  melody  from  "  II  Trova- 
tore,"  which  has  always  been  particularly  hateful  to  me 
from  sad  associations,  and  this  unfortunate  occurrence 
drove  me  nearly  wild.  I  left  the  window,  and,  throwing 
myself  face  downward  on  the  sofa,  lay  perfectly  still  in 
a  state  of  such  intense  wretchedness  that  the  disorder 
of  my  mind  seemed  as  that  of  an  untidy  room,  where 
restless  and  impatient  hands  have  been  at  work  casting 
the  debris  in  odd  corners  and  cursorily  sweeping  the 
middle  of  the  floor  so  as  to  make  it  look  decent,  but 
where  a  sudden  gust  of  wind  whirls  everything  about 
in  distracting  confusion. 

Two  or  three  days  later  I  gently  told  Fred  that  it 
was  no  longer  possible  for  us  to  retain  our  present, 
comparatively  speaking,  comfortable  and  pretty  little 
flat,  and  with  heavy  hearts  we  set  about  looking  for 
something  cheaper  and  simpler. 

This  we  found  in  Thirty-third  Street,  two  rooms 
and  a  bath,  and  a  tiny,  tiny  little  kitchen  in  the  base- 

477 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

ment,  abutting  on  that  of  the  landlady,  a  sour-faced 
Irishwoman,  whose  voice  alone  was  enough  to  make 
one  take  flight,  so  rasping  and  unpleasant  was  it. 

The  furniture  was  very  scanty  and  very  clean,  but 
the  view  from  the  windows  was  positively  suicidal, 
especially  during  the  scorching  summer  days,  with 
the  noise  of  heavy  wagons  and  cars  rattling  continually 
in  one's  ears,  accompanied  by  the  hoarse,  coarse  voices 
and  heavy  laughter  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  dingy 
quarter  of  the  town.  It  was  a  dismal  place,  indeed, 
with  its  malodorous  suggestion  of  dark  slums,  where 
Hell's  Kitchen  hid  its  squalor  some  dozen  blocks  or 
so  away,  and  before  I  descended  so  many  steps  farther 
down  the  scale,  I  made  up  my  mind  to  profit  by  what 
remained  to  me  of  the  outward  appearance,  at  least,  of 
semi-prosperity  to  send  for  an  old  physician  established 
in  our  vicinity,  and  of  whom  I  had  heard  favorable  re- 
ports, in  order  to  find  out,  if  possible,  what  was  ailing 
me. 

He  came  and  went,  leaving  me  absolutely  bewil- 
dered and  incredulous  about  his  astounding  diagnosis. 
How  very  happy  such  tidings  would  have  made  me  a 
year  before,  granted  that  he  spoke  the  truth,  but  how 
terrifying  they  were  now — so  much  so,  indeed,  that  I 
carefully  abstained  from  telling  Fred  either  of  the  doc- 
tor's visit  or  of  its  unexpected  result. 

There  was  an  end,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  of  all 
my  fine  dreams  with  regard  to  the  training  of  horses, 

and  sorrowfully  I  went  and  told  A n  that  as  I 

was  leaving  home  for  the  rest  of  the  summer  I  would 
have  temporarily  to  interrupt  my  delightful  rides.  He 
was  sincerely  grieved,  and  made  me  promise  to  come 
back  as  soon  as  possible,  for,  as  he  said,  "the  place 
would  not  be  the  same  without  me." 

Of  the  weeks  that  followed  the  least  said  the  better, 

478 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

for  they  were  nothing  short  of  a  perpetual  nightmare, 
upon  which  I  dwell  even  now  as  little  as  possible  in 
my  thoughts.  The  weather  was  trying  beyond  descrip- 
tion, being  composed  of  a  succession  of  broiling  days 
and  nights,  with  ghastly  thunder-storms,  and  scorch- 
ing winds  almost  worse  than  an  Egyptian  Khamsin. 
By  dint  of  redoubling  my  efforts  in  the  decorative  line, 
and  by  the  sale  of  a  few  precious  little  knick-knacks 
which  I  still  possessed,  I  managed  to  prevent  Fred 
from  noticing  that  the  question  of  actual  food  had  be- 
come one  of  momentary  uncertainty. 

Fortunately  the  poor  fellow  was  out  the  greater  part 
of  the  day  still  bent  on  obtaining  this  elusive  situation 
which  we  had  never  ceased  hoping  would  finally  save 
us  from  total  want,  and  thus  I  had  but  one  meal  to  pro- 
vide for — namely,  dinner,  the  early  morning  toast  and 
tea  being  hardly  worthy  of  the  name  of  a  meal. 

Those  dinners!  How  intensely  funny  they  were! 
"  Funny  "  may  seem  a  euphemism,  but  still  my  sense 
of  humor  never  quite  left  me,  as  luck  would  have  it, 
and  I  often  could  not  help  laughing  when  I  glorified 
an  Irish  stew,  or  a  couple  of  chops  flanked  by  two  po- 
tatoes, into  a  sort  of  banquet  by  setting  on  the  white 
oil-cloth,  among  forks  and  knives — no  longer  silver,  but 
plain  wood  and  iron,  like  those  of  the  Chicago  stock- 
yards eating -room  —  a  small  bowl  of  green  leaves 
and  homely  flowers  purchased  for  a  few  cents  from 
itinerant  vendors,  and  of  which  I  took  extraordi- 
nary care  in  order  to  make  them  last  as  long  as  pos- 
sible. 

Fred  behaved  splendidly.  The  pampered  clubman, 
who  had  so  short  a  time  before  found  fault  with  the 
exquisite  cuisine  of  a  chef  to  whom  I  paid  the  salary  of 
a  general  officer,  now  ate  contentedly,  and  even  lav- 
ished praise  upon  dishes  which  Eugene  Sue  in  his 

479 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

My  stores  de  Paris  so  graphically  describes  as  "desmets 
de  porti&re,"  washed  down  by  tepid  water,  for  ice  was,  of 
course,  out  of  the  question,  and  terminated  by  one,  or 
at  the  utmost  two,  cigarettes  of  a  very  inferior  quality. 

It  was  then  that  we  both  knew  what  hunger  means, 
and  when  clad  in  our  expensive  clothes  and  presenting 
the  outward  appearance  of  extremely  wealthy  and  pros- 
perous members  of  an  ultra  -  fashionable  set,  we  often 
hurried  past  the  doors  of  some  inviting  restaurant, 
because  the  aromas  thereof  were  somewhat  aggravat- 
ing to  our  empty  stomachs. 

Such  experiences  are  liable  to  make  one  singularly 
pitiful  towards  any  poor  wretch  imploring  one's  charity 
in  the  street,  even  if  one  be  certain  that  the  alms  de- 
manded in  the  whining  sing-song  of  the  professional 
beggar  will  go  direct  to  a  drinking-shop,  for  it  is  far 
better  to  give,  even  twenty  times,  to  the  undeserving 
than  to  run  the  risk  of  once  refusing  a  really  hungry 
man. 

The  day  before  my  birthday,  strangely  enough,  our 
landlord,  a  good-natured,  rather  inebriate  Hibernian, 
employed  somewhere  upon  the  city  water-works,  took 
a  holiday  at  the  seashore,  and  brought  back  such  a 
quantity  of  fish  as  trophies  of  his  skill  as  an  angler 
that  he  burst  upon  me  with  an  offering  of  some  big, 
fat  flounders  and  several  large  crabs.  Lord,  what  a 
feast  that  was !  I  went  to  the  expense  of  buying  some 
crisp  salad  and  a  little  fruit,  also  half  a  pound  of  coffee 
and  a  large  bunch  of  snowy  marguerites,  half  of  which 
I  gave  to  the  wife  of  the  successful  fisherman  and  part 
provider  of  the  banquet,  who,  remarkable  to  state,  had 
in  a  far  corner  of  her  morose  and  grumbling  nature  an 
intense  love  for  flowers. 

When  Fred  came  home  he  gave  a  gasp  of  astonish- 
ment at  the  gorgeousness  of  the  festive  board.  Truly, 

480 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

I  had  surpassed  myself,  and  had  even  gone  so  far  as 
to  decorate  every  dish  and  plate,  of  which  there  were 
at  least  six — being  given  the  magnitude  of  my  prepara- 
tions —  with  those  ingeniously  devised  little  Japanese 
tissue  -  paper  napkins  which  that  year  druggists  so 
liberally  presented  to  their  customers 

I  had  of  late  become  quite  a  patron  of  the  druggist 
at  the  next  corner,  by  reason  of  the  frequent  headaches 
which  added  their  quantum  of  annoyance  to  my  varie- 
gated arid  multitudinous  vexations,  and  with  praise- 
worthy taste  I  invariably  selected  pink-and- white  ones, 
which,  of  course,  produced  a  very  grand  effect  on  the 
white  oil-cloth. 

"Let  my  lord  suffer  his  hand-maiden  to  relieve  him 
of  his  hat,"  I  said,  courtesying.  "The  banquet  pre- 
pared for  my  lord  is  now  in  readiness  and  awaiting  his 
good  pleasure." 

"May  I  inquire,"  replied  he,  peering  curiously  at 
the  unwonted  magnificence  of  the  table  appointments, 
"to  what  I  am  indebted  for  this  nattering  reception? 
Do  my  eyes  betray  the  trust  I  place  in  them,  or  is  yon- 
der dish  really  a  dressed  crab?" 

"  It  is,  kind  and  beloved  sir,  it  is,  and  if  you  but  knew 
how  long  a  crab  takes  dressing — longer  even  than  you 
do,  in  fact — and  realized  that  the  dish  upon  which  you 
deign  to  gaze  contains  six  able-bodied  specimens  of 
that  ilk,  you  would  yield  to  the  pardonable  temptation 
of  sampling  them  at  once  in  recognition  of  the  dresser's 
efforts." 

Fred  leaned  forward  and  took  another  good  look  at 
the  appetizing  concoction  within  the  dish.  "  Have  you 
robbed  a  bank  in  my  absence?  Tell  me  the  worst  at 
once!" 

"Cheer  up,  friend;   my  hands  are  as  clean  as  my 
conscience,  which  is  something  to  be  proud  of  after  my 
s*  481 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

attentions  to  the  crabs.  You  can  eat  and  make  merry ; 
the  wife  of  your  bosom  is  as  yet  blameless." 

"For  all  its  small  mercies  let  a  wise  Providence  be 
praised,"  he  murmured,  piously,  taking  his  place  op- 
posite to  me,  and  drawing  the  dressed  crabs  lovingly 
and  tenderly  towards  his  side  of  the  table.  "A  great 
Court  physician  once  assured  me  that  my  heart  is 
superbly  sound.  I  can  now  readily  believe  that  his 
wisdom  led  him  not  astray,  else  this  surprise  might 
have  ended  fatally  for  me,  and  caused  you  to  become  a 
lone-lorn  widow  in  the  very  prime  of  your  youth  and 
beauty." 

"  In  order  to  avoid  giving  you  further  shocks,  it  will 
be  safer  for  me  to  tell  you  that  two  large  and  juicy  floun- 
ders are  even  now  reposing  on  the  kitchen  stove,  and 
will  appear  as  a  second  course  when  you  have  exhaust- 
ed the  joys  of  the  toothsome  dainty  which  now  absorbs 
your  attention.  These  will  be  followed  by  some  fragrant 
coffee  at  twenty-eight  cents  a  pound,  prepared  in  ap- 
proved Turkish  fashion!" 

"  Really,  I  am  not  strong  enough  to  bear  up  against 
such  proofs  of  devotion  in  spite  of  the  well-averred  and 
countersigned  healthiness  of  my  heart.  Spare  me  any 
further  details,  my  good  woman,  and  assuage  my 
curiosity  by  answering  my  first  question,  What  is  the 
occasion  I  am  thus  bidden  to  celebrate?" 

"My  twenty-fourth  birthday,  Monseigneur.  Noth- 
ing short  of  this  auspicious  anniversary  would  have 
led  me  to  cook  two  of  the  four  luscious  fish  which  this 
morning  adorned  my  larder.  'Waste  not,  want  not/  is 
my  motto;  but  I  am  of  opinion  that  this  comforting 
proverb  holds  good  only  on  ordinary  days." 

A  pained  expression,  quickly  repressed,  swept  over 
Fred's  mobile  features;  then,  also  realizing  that  ban- 
ter was  the  safest  sauce  for  those  fish,  he  gravely 

482 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

and  impressively  rose,  detached  a  full-blown  marguerite 
from  the  central  bouquet,  and,  dropping  on  one  knee 
beside  me,  said,  unctuously: 

"Let  this  blossom  —  the  sweetest  of  all  flowers  — 
testify  to  the  loyalty  and  fealty  of  your  most  passion- 
ate admirer,  fair  la  dye,  and  be  the  harbinger  of  an  era 
of  plethoric  prosperity,  when  crabs  and  flounders  will 
frolic  in  countless  hordes  about  us.  and  a  golden  Pacto- 
lus  flow  freely  into  our  temporarily  depleted  coffers." 

I  fastened  the  marguerite  in  my  dress,  and,  kissing 
my  hand  to  him,  ran  down-stairs  to  fetch  "  the  second 
course/'  which  was  as  greatly  appreciated  as  the  first, 
I  need  not  add. 

"Promise  me,  O  gallant  Knight,  promise  me  some- 
thing!" I  said,  fervently,  as  I  deposited  the  deliciously 
cooked  flounders  upon  the  table. 

"All  right,"  said  Fred,  eying  them  en  connaisseur. 

"Hurrah!   Promise  me  that  you  will  eat  them  both!" 

Fred  drew  himself  up  rather  stiffly. 

"If  you  consider  that  fair,"  he  remarked,  "I  can 
only  say  that  the  sense  of  honor  which  adversity  has 
left  you  is  disgracefully  small!" 

"I  know!  It  is  terrible!"  I  acquiesced.  "But  let  my 
excuse  for  this  degrading  demand  upon  your  generosity 
be  that  I  have  eaten  too  much  crab  to  allow  another 
morsel,  be  it  ever  so  tempting,  to  pass  my  lips  I" 

And  thus  the  banquet  was  eaten  I 

It  seemed  as  if  the  good  wishes  uttered  by  Fred  on 
that  memorable  day  had  somehow  or  other  broken  our 
long  run  of  bad  luck,  for  the  very  next  day  he  obtained 
a  position  at  the  munificent  salary  of  thirty  dollars  a 
week,  which  made  us  feel  as  if  we  were  once  more  mill- 
ionaires, and  when  in  addition  to  this  I  received  a  very 
large  order  for  the  painting  in  gouache  colors  of  some 
really  handsome  sachets  and  satin  bonbon  boxes  for 

483 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

a  leading  firm  of  confectioners — certain  to  bring  me  a 
comparatively  large  profit — we  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  we  could  once  more  aspire  to  the  dignity  of  an 
apartment. 

We  therefore  left,  with  bag  and  baggage,  our  wretch- 
ed quarters,  and  for  the  second  time  established  our 
selves  in  Forty-third  Street,  two  doors  from  where  we 
had  lived  before.  Truly,  this  fortunate  alteration  in 
our  circumstances  happened  just  in  time,  for  I  could 
no  longer  doubt  the  correctness  of  my  old  doctor's  diag- 
nosis, and  could  now  indulge  in  this  joyful  hope  with- 
out any  too  great  misgivings. 

This  being  the  case,  I  confided  to  Fred  the  new  dig- 
nity in  store  for  him,  and.  this  improvident  man's  de- 
light had  something  pathetically  humorous  about  it, 
for  had  the  interesting  stranger  expected  been  destined 
to  inherit  the  fairest  crown  and  imperial  estate  in  the 
world,  the  prospective  father  could  not  have  looked  upon 
this  advent  more  enthusiastically. 

I  set  to  work  with  a  will,  painting  all  day,  and  work- 
ing half  the  night  at  certain  fluffy  and  diaphanous 
garments  of  diminutive  size,  the  material  for  which 
was  furnished  by  the  lavish  destruction  of  my  ridicu- 
lously elaborate  wardrobe,  petticoats  flounced  with 
broad  Valenciennes,  Mechlin,  and  Alenjon  laces  being 
transformed  into  regal  little  robes,  and  an  exquisite 
pale-pink-and-silver  Court-train  lined  with  white  satin 
providing  magnificent  and  very  original  draperies  for 
the  plainest  of  wicker-work  cradles  and  dressing-bas- 
kets. This  was  evidently  a  leaf  taken  out  of  Madame 
S  .  .  .  a's  book,  for  whenever  I  glanced  at  these  speci- 
mens of  my  handiwork  I  could  not  help  thinking  of 
that  lady's  studiously  simple  rattan-chairs  cushioned 
with  priceless  sixteenth-century  cloth-of-silver. 

The  Saturday  when  Fred  was  to  bring  his  first  salary 

484 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

home  we  decided  to  make  memorable  by  a  tasteful  little 
dinner,  and  when  walking  home  late  in  the  afternoon 
from  my  quest  for  sundry  dainties,,  I  was  attracted 
by  some  Japanese  chrysanthemums  of  singular  beauty, 
each  blossom  as  big  as  a  small  saucer,  and  of  a  vir- 
ginal whiteness  as  woolly  as  a  new-born  lamb. 

"Those  are  just  the  thing,"  thought  I,  and,  embold- 
ened by  the  pleasant  feeling  that  much  gold  was  to  be 
ours  before  night,  I  entered  the  shop  wherein  countless 
blossoms  basked  in  the  rays  of  the  electric-light,  and 
with  a  recklessness  savoring  of  former  days  deter- 
mined to  invest  in  a  dollar's  worth  or  so  of  the  blooms. 

Chrysanthemums  in  Europe  are  an  inexpensive 
vegetable,  and  my  extravagance  could  not  be  very 
great,  I  thought,  so  I  requested  the  diamond-solitaired 
clerk  to  give  me  a  modest  dozen.  With  glistening  eyes 
I  watched  him  remove  the  enormously  long -stemmed 
beauties  from  a  lordly  cloisonne  vase  where  they  re- 
posed, wrap  them  up  with  a  flourish  in  rustling  sheets 
of  waxed  paper,  smiling  the  while  in  a  fashion  which 
alone  was  an  inducement  to  patronize  the  establishment. 

"How  much?"  said  I,  carelessly,  and  in  the  easy 
tone  of  a  person  accustomed  to  buy  flowers  two  or  three 
times  a  day  in  or  out  of  season. 

"  Twenty-five  dollars ;  these  are  rare  specimens,  and 
quite  newly  imported." 

I  felt  the  blood  receding  violently  from  my  face,  and 
my  heart  thump  wildly  against  my  ribs  with  "  'ammer, 
'ammer,  'ammer"  of  the  celebrated  English  sports- 
man. Of  course  it  was  quite  out  of  the  question  for 
me  to  leave  the  luckless  flowers  on  the  counter  and  run 
away,  as  I  would  have  given  much  to  be  able  to  do, 
but  the  trouble  was  that  all  my  purse  contained  was 
three  rather  frayed  dollar  bills  and  a  couple  of  dimes. 
What  was  to  be  done? 

485 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

For  once,  however,  luck  came  my  way.  The  es- 
timable clerk,  bending  gracefully  over  the  counter 
and  taking  me  in  at  one  glance,  from  the  aigrette  of 
my  stylish  little  bonnet  to  the  tip  of  my  patent-leather 
shoe,  remarked : 

"  You're  not  thinking  of  carrying  those  home,  ma'am, 
are  you?  If  you  will  give  me  your  address  we  will 
send  them  right  around." 

With  a  shuddering  sigh  of  relief  I  handed  him  my 
card,  smiling  superciliously. 

"Yes,  send  them,  please;  I  won't  want  them  before 
dinner,"  and  with  what  remained  of  courage  in  my 
trembling  frame  I  swept  grandly  out  of  that  accursed 
place. 

What  was  Fred  going  to  say?  Poor  old  fellow! 
Nearly  a  week's  hard  and  dispiriting  work,  resulting 
in  the,  to  him,  very  questionable  pleasure  of  gazing 
upon  huge,  woolly,  white,  recently  imported  Japanese 
chrysanthemums,  for  which  I  now  reflected  that  I  had 
no  more  fit  receptacle  than  the  wash-boiler.  Dear, 
dear!  Could  it  be  possible  that  after  all  my  hardly 
bought  experience  I  could  be  such  a  fool!  Tears  of 
mortification  rushed  to  my  eyes,  and  I  hurried  along 
the  wind-blown  street,  anathematizing  myself  softly 
under  my  breath. 

Suddenly  a  thought  made  me  stop  dead  with  a  re- 
vulsion of  feelings  which  nearly  overcame  me.  When 

first  Dr.  C 1  had  disclosed  to  me  his  suspicions 

as  to  the  nature  of  my  ailments,  I  had  hidden  three  ten- 
dollar  gold  pieces  in  the  lining  of  my  now  empty  jewel- 
case,  and  no  privations,  however  hard  or  bitter,  had 
made  me  yield  to  the  temptation  of  bringing  them  to 
the  light  of  day,  for  I  reflected  that  I  had  entered  upon 
a  period  when  improvidence  would  have  to  be  called 
by  another  and  harsher  name.  These  three  gold  pieces 

486 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

were  now  my  salvation,  and  though  I  felt  an  almost 
superstitious  horror  in  diverting  them  from  the  use  for 
which  they  had  been  originally  intended,  yet  as  soon 
as  I  reached  home  I  swiftly  took  them  out,  and  sitting 
down  without  even  removing  my  hat  and  gloves,  anx- 
iously awaited  the  advent  of  the  florist's  messenger. 

My  one  dread  was  that  poor  Fred  might  come  home 
before  I  had  dismissed  the  unwelcome  individual  and 
discover  what  a  good-for-nothing,  wasteful  person  he 
had  married.  The  minutes  passed  slowly.  Every 
one  seemed  an  hour,  but  at  last  the  bell  rang  and  I 
flew  to  the  door.  Behind  it  stood  a  pale-faced  youth 
bearing  a  gigantic  box.  "Idiot!"  I  muttered  between 
my  teeth,  in  uncomplimentary  reference  to  myself. 

"What  did  you  say,  ma'am?" 

"Oh,  nothing  at  all!"  I  replied,  depositing  the  three 
eagles  in  his  grimy  palm. 

"  I'm  sorry,  ma'am,  but  I  can't  make  but  four  dol- 
lars change.  I'll  have  to  run  back  to  the  store." 

"  Keep  it  for  yourself ;  that  was  a  heavy  box,"  I  said, 
impelled  by  an  old,  ineradicable  habit,  but  almost  im- 
mediately remembering  regretfully  what  a  fine,  juicy 
leg  of  lamb  that  dollar  would  have  bought. 

"Thank  you,  lady;  very  much  obliged,  I'm  sure," 
quoth  the  youth  with  a  far-spreading  smile,  and  as  he 
walked  down-stairs  I  heard  him  gayly  whistling  "  Cap- 
tain Jinks  of  the  Horse  Marines."  I  longed  greedily 
for  his  heart's  blood,  but  what  is  the  use  of  vain 
wishes?  And  I  could  not  now  allow  the  grass — or  the 
chrysanthemums,  either — to  grow  under  my  feet. 

One  thing  was  certain — Fred  must  not  be  allowed  to 
see  those  long  stems !  He  had  no  love  for  flowers,  but 
had  bought  many,  having  always  been  of  a  very  gal- 
lant turn  of  mind.  Horrible  thought!  He  had  been 
in  America  before,  and  perchance  knew  the  value  of 

487 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

newly  imported  specimens,  so  with  fierce  energy  I  tore 
open  the  box  and  broke  off  the  glorious  blossoms  six 
inches  from  their  nodding  heads,  concealing  all  traces 
of  my  crime  in  the  coal-hole. 

Then,  flying  back  to  my  room,  I  made  a  dive  into 
the  wardrobe,  and  got  out  a  delicious  frock  of  lemon- 
tinted  silk  gauze  and  silver  tissue,  open  en  coeur  in 
front  and  with  elbow  -  sleeves  terminated  by  sabots  of 
needle-point.  I  had  worn  it  but  once,  and  that  at  a 

dinner  given  by  Grand  Duke  V r — "  Volodia," 

as  he  is  familiarly  called — a  dinner  given  in  my  honor 
during  my  last  short  sojourn  in  London  before  coming 
to  America ;  and  as  I  shook  out  its  glimmering  folds  a 
few  violets  which  had  been  in  my  belt  on  that  night 
fell  at  my  feet.  I  picked  them  up,  looked  at  them  in- 
tently for  a  moment,  and  then  carefully  placed  them 
between  the  leaves  of  my  writing-pad. 

"Tempi  passati!"  I  murmured,  and,  turning  once 
more  to  the  wardrobe,  I  hurriedly  brought  forth  the 
stockings,  slippers,  and  petticoats  which  went  with  the 
dress. 

"Blow  the  expense!"  I  muttered,  vulgarly  but  em- 
phatically. "I  will  attire  myself  with  magnificence 
quite  regardless!"  which  I  proceeded  to  do.  When 
my  task  was  accomplished  I  ran  to  the  dining-room, 
and  pulling  two  of  the  execrable  chrysanthemums  out 
of  the  vegetable-dish  in  which  I  had  placed  them  in 
lieu  of  a  jardiniere,  I  set  one  rakishly  on  the  spot  where 
once  a  tiara  used  to  sparkle,  the  other  at  the  south- 
west point  of  my  corsage,  and  before  rushing  to  the 
kitchen,  where  a  fat  pullet  roasting  before  the  fire  was 
demanding  my  immediate  attention  in  sputter  language, 
I  climbed  upon  a  chair,  gazed  in  the  mantel  looking- 
glass,  and  delivered  myself  of  that  great  and  expres- 
sive German  word,  "Coloss-a-a-1!" 

488 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

A  few  days  later  the  following  advertisement  caught 
my  eye  in  the  columns  of  the  daily  paper : 

WANTED. — Designers  for  silk  manufactory.  Large  sums  paid 
for  original  designs.  Apply  to,  etc. 

This,  perhaps,  thought  I,  will  afford  me  the  chance 
to  recover  my  twenty-six  dollars,  and  I  at  once  set  out 
for  the  place  indicated,  where  I  was  received  by  a  small, 
thin  man,  with  a  pronounced  Jewish  caste  of  counte- 
nance, who  deigned  to  acquaint  me  with  the  require- 
ments of  his  firm,  although  he  declared  that  he  could  not 
for  a  moment  entertain  the  idea  that  a  lady  of  my  tran- 
scendently  prosperous  and  elegant  appearance  could  be 
really  in  search  of  such  work. 

There  I  showed  the  white  feather,  and,  apprehensive 
lest,  if  I  acknowledged  this  to  be  the  case,  he  would 
refuse  to  countenance  my  application,  I  fell  back  upon 

the  device  of  the  poor  old  Duchess  de  P y — one 

that  I  had  already  used  once  —  and  confessed  that  a 
young  protege1  of  mine,  recently  from  Europe,  was  the 
artist  aspiring  to  the  vacant  post  of  designer  in  ordi- 
nary to  his  Hebraic  Highness.  Strengthened  by  a 
gracious  assurance  that  he  would  himself  inspect  and 
treat  leniently  the  work  of  my  young  friend,  I  left  him 
with  joy  in  my  heart,  and  on  the  way  home  purchased 
several  sheets  of  tinted  paper,  whereon  to  try  my  hand 
at  this  new  branch  of  industrial  art. 

We  had  heard  of  Bertrand,  who,  according  to  his 
statements,  was  doing  extremely  well.  He  had  gone 
into  partnership  with  a  young  Mexican,  whose  ranch 
was  situated  on  the  confines  of  New  Mexico,  and  his 
letters  were  teeming  with  technical  expressions  such 
as  "round-ups,"  "stampedes,"  "mavericks,"  "lari- 
ats," "corrals,"  "haciendas,"  e  tutti  quanti.  If  he  was 
to  be  believed,  prosperity  could  go  no  farther  than  that 

489 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

achieved  by  him,  and  so  full  of  life  and  youthful  strength 
were  his  missives  that  a  great  load  was  lifted  from  my 
mind,  and  I  looked  forward  eagerly  each  week  to  his 
breezy  reports,  cleverly  illustrated  with  pen-and-ink 
sketches  representing  himself  as  a  wild  and  woolly 
Westerner  armed  to  the  teeth  and  galloping  furiously, 
in  the  most  approved  fashion,  on  a  fiery  mustang  at  the 
rear  of  a  countless  herd  of  flying,  long-horned  steers, 
and  followed  by  his  trusty  Jim,  similarly  accoutred. 

That  autumn  was  a  lovely  one,  the  woods  along 
the  Hudson  adopting  that  gorgeous  coloring  which  is 
found  nowhere  but  in  the  New  World,  and  which  clothes 
the  whole  country-side  with  imperial  scarlet  and  daz- 
zling gold.  Fred  and  I,  following  the  time-honored  cus- 
tom of  the  working-classes  "on  a  Sunday  afternoon," 
made  little  excursions  to  the  environs  of  New  York, 
treating  ourselves  in  the  evening  to  plain  but  abundant 
little  suppers — see  boarding-house  prospectuses — and 
coming  home  tired  but  contented  to  our  humble  home 
in  the  topmost  corner  of  the  populous  bee-hive  where 
we  had  found  lodgment. 

These  joys  were,  however,  of  but  short  duration, 
for  the  winter  set  in  with  alarming  promptitude  and 
severity,  and  was  heralded  in  November  by  a  regular 
blizzard  of  snow  and  ice.  I  was  doing  well  with  my 
silk  designing,  and  had  even  been  the  recipient  of  ele- 
gant encomiums  from  my  Jewish  friend,  accompanied 
by  a  substantial  check  which  warmed  the  cockles  of 
my  heart.  Indeed,  a  certain  composition  of  mine,  made 
up  largely  of  tiny  pink  shells  and  showers  of  apple-blos- 
som petals,  found  so  much  favor  in  the  manufacturer's 
eyes  that  for  that  single  pattern  he  actually  paid  me 
twenty-five  dollars,  thus  almost  completely  wiping  out 
the  debt  that  I  had  contracted  towards  the  interesting 
stranger. 

490 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

My  health  was  once  more  excellent,  and  I  now  look- 
ed hopefully  and  cheerfully  towards  the  early  spring, 
since  our  sky  was  gradually  losing  so  many  of  its 
clouds.  Our  Christmas  festivities  were  characteristic, 
for  I  surprised  Fred  with  a  diminutive  Christmas-tree 
gayly  decorated  with  pink-and- white  candles  and  many 
little  tufts  of  silver  tinsel,  also  six  lady  -  apples,  six 
tangerine  oranges,  and  six  sticks  of  candy!  ,My  pres- 
ent to  him  was  a  smoking-jacket,  which  I  had  manu- 
factured from  another  of  my  Court-trains,  this  one  of 
deep-crimson  brocade  with  gold  fleur-de-lis  and  lined 
with  an  unquestionably  brilliant  piece  of  orange  velvet 
which  had  once  done  duty  as  an  opera-cloak. 

I  am  sorry  I  cannot  praise  the  fit  of  the  garment, 
my  talents  as  a  tailor  having  been  insufficiently  devel- 
oped, but  still,  provided  it  was  left  wide  open  and  negli- 
gently thrown  back  as  if  in  the  heat  of  argument,  it 
was  not  altogether  unwearable,  and,  moreover,  caused 
us  so  much  amusement  that  it  well  repaid  the  sacrifice 
of  two  articles  of  apparel  which  had  not  originally  cost 
much  more  than  a  couple  of  thousand  dollars  apiece. 

Fred  insisted  upon  it  that  I  should  also  have  made 
him  a  smoking-cap,  adorned  with  a  golden  tassel,  in 
order  to  complete  the  magnificence  of  his  appearance, 
but  I  pointed  out  to  him  the  extravagance  of  his  desires, 
and  turned  my  attention  to  a  ridiculous  pair  of  worsted 
pink-and-white  knitted  boots — about  the  length  of  my 
finger — and  which  he  had  facetiously  hung  to  the  top- 
most branch  of  the  tree.  This,  somehow  or  other,  check- 
ed our  uproarious  merriment  and  made  us  look  at  each 
other  with  the  wise  nods  of  augurs. 

Early  in  January  I  received  a  visit  from  the  old  ^Escu- 
lapius,  to  whom  I  pinned  my  faith. 

"I  came  to  warn  you,"  said  he,  "that  if  the  happy 
event  should  occur  at  night,  I  will  not  preside,  but  will 

49i 


send  you  my  son,  who  has  just  graduated  from  a  hospi- 
tal after  finishing  his  course  at  the  medical  college,  and 
is  now  joining  me  in  my  practice.  He  is  a  nice  young 
chap  of  twenty-four,  and  I  am  sure  you  will  like  him." 

I  was  looking  at  him  open-mouthed,  a  foolish  feeling 
of  dread  and  despair  making  my  hands  and  feet  as 
cold  as  ice.  When  I  found  my  voice  I  said,  somewhat 

pleadingly :  "  Why,  surely,  Dr.  C 1,  you  cannot 

mean  this!  I  am  accustomed  to  you  now,  and,  more- 
over, you  do  not  seriously  contemplate  the  possibility 
of  making  me  serve  as  a  d6but  to  your  son's  profes- 
sional career!" 

" Pooh,  pooh!  my  dear  madame ;  the  youngsters  now- 
adays know  more  than  we  old  fellows  ever  did!  You 
will  be  in  perfectly  safe  hands,  so  don't  be  fanciful  and 
childish.  I  am  far  too  old  to  undertake  such  errands 
on  cold  winter  nights,  and  I  have  already  told  my  son 
to  call  upon  you  so  that  you  may  become  acquainted." 

I  rose  to  my  feet.  "  Is  this  your  last  word,  Doctor?" 
I  said,  very  quietly,  although  I  was  boiling  with  indig- 
nation. 

"  Why,  certainly ;  and  you  are  a  foolish  young  wom- 
an to  object  to  such  a  natural  arrangement." 

"Foolish  or  not,"  I  interrupted,  "I  will  be  obliged 
to  you  if  you  will  kindly  let  me  know  the  amount  of 
my  indebtedness  at  once.  It  is  not  my  intention  to 
place  myself  under  the  care  of  a  young  whipper-snapper, 
whether  he  be  your  son  or  not,  and  I  wonder  what  your 
distinguished  confreres  here,  who  are,  as  is  well  known, 
the  first  gynaecologists  in  the  world,  would  think  of 
your  treatment  of  a  patient  who  trusted  in  you!" 

Medicus  turned  towards  me  an  inflamed  countenance, 
which,  with  his  hoary  hair,  now  more  than  ever  re- 
sembled a  large  strawberry  rolled  in  sugar,  and,  vainly 
attempting  to  look  dignified,  said,  truculently : 

492 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  All  right,  madame ;  I  dare  say  you  will  have  plenty 
of  cause  for  regretting  your  decision  in  this  matter. 
I  will  send  you  my  bill  this  very  day,  and  I  have  now 
the  honor  to  wish  you  good-afternoon." 

I  bowed  him  out,  closing  the  door  after  him  with 
some  violence,  and  when  I  was  once  more  alone,  in- 
dulged in  a  few  ominous  reflections  upon  the  complete 
helplessness  of  my  position,  for  I  knew  hardly  any- 
body, and  was  not  acquainted  even  with  the  names 
of  any  recommendable  physicians,  save  those  which  are 
household  words  throughout  America,  and  even  Eu- 
rope, and  who  would  be  proportionately  high-priced. 

Some  time  before  I  had  become  casually  acquainted 
with  an  old  lady  who  lived  on  the  second  floor  of  our 
apartment-house.  She  was  a  frail  and  refined-looking 
woman,  always  dressed  in  severe  black,  and  one  day 
as  I  was  coming  home  I  had  met  her  at  the  foot  of  the 
stairs,  carrying  a  visibly  heavy  travelling-bag. 

Quickly  and  without  waiting  to  think,  I  had  stepped 
up  and  taken  the  weighty  object  from  her  hand,  carry- 
ing it  to  her  door  for  her,  and  she  had  displayed  such 
disproportionate  gratitude  for  this  trifling  service  that, 
nolens  volens,  I  had  been  obliged  to  accept  her  invita- 
tion to  take  a  cup  of  tea  with  her  in  her  rooms. 

Her  surroundings  were  those  of  a  gentlewoman,  and 
in  the  conversation  which  ensued  she  proved  herself  a 
well-informed  and  polished  person.  From  that  mo- 
ment on  we  had  exchanged  an  occasional  visit,  and, 
strangely  enough,  shortly  after  the  doctor's  abrupt 
exit  the  nice  old  lady  called,  bringing  me  a  lovely 
bunch  of  violets,  just  received  from  her  son,  a  planter 
in  Florida. 

I  was  so  irritated  at  what  had  just  occurred  that  I 
told  her  all  about  it,  and  also  for  the  first  time  since  I 
had  known  her  betrayed,  perchance  in  the  bitterness 

493 


of  my  heart,  a  little  more  of  my  real  circumstances 
than  in  cooler  moments  I  could  have  been  induced  to. 

"I  am  sincerely  sorry  for  you,  my  dear,"  she  said, 
sympathetically  stroking  my  hand.  "  I  know  what  it 
is  to  be  alone  when  one  is  ill,  for  not  so  very  long  ago  I 
went  through  a  dangerous  operation,  and,  indeed,  owe 
my  life  to  the  fact  that  the  surgeon  who  attended  me 
is  what  one  might  call  a  regular  wizard,  and,  moreover, 
the  kindest-hearted  and  most  sympathetic  member  of  a 
profession  which  can  boast  of  many  fine  men.  I  would 
like  you  to  know  him.  He  is  Dr.  W.  G.  W  .  .  .  e,  and 
though  still  a  young  man,  as  celebrated  surgeons  go, 
he  is  perhaps  the  ablest  and  most  successful  operator 
in  this  country." 

"Which  means  that  he  is  quite  beyond  my  reach," 
I  said,  lightly,  and,  eager  to  dismiss  the  subject  which 
I  had  so  imprudently  broached,  I  abruptly  turned  the 
conversation  into  other  channels,  determined  to  keep 
my  own  counsel  in  the  future,  and  not  even  to  tell  Fred 
about  this  new  contretemps,  which,  however,  weighed 
terribly  upon  me. 

As  I  had,  however,  nearly  two  months  more  before 
me,  I  resolutely  put  aside  disquieting  thoughts  and 
awaited  better  things,  in  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Micawber. 

Nor,  marvellous  to  relate,  was  I  disappointed,  for 

about  a  week  after  Dr.  C Ts  defection  I  was 

sitting  somewhat  disconsolately  alone  at  half-past 
nine  in  the  evening  in  my  diminutive  "drawing-room," 
hard  at  work  upon  an  intricate  design  of  sea-weed 
and  idealized  star-fish  and  echidnae,  when,  to  my  sur- 
prise, the  door-bell  rang.  I  had  not  the  faintest  idea 
who  my  late  visitor  could  be,  and  was,  indeed,  inclined 
not  to  open  the  door  at  all,  thinking  it  might  be  a  mis- 
take, but,  finally  rising  and  unfastening  the  chain,  con- 
fronted a  tall,  extremely  well-dressed  man,  with  a  knot 

494 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

of  violets  in  the  lapel  of  his  fur-lined  coat  and  an  all- 
prevailing  flavor  of  recherchG  and  bonne  compagnie, 
which  was  its  own  passport. 

"Mrs. ?"  he  inquired,  glancing  at  the  white  tea- 
gown  which  proclaimed  me  the  mistress  of  the  house, 
and,  on  my  replying  in  the  affirmative,  he  added,  "I 
am  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e ;  may  I  have  a  few  words  with  you?" 

My  astonishment  had  reached  positive  stupefaction, 
and  as  I  preceded  him  into  the  pleasant  little  room, 
lighted  by  fire  and  lamp,  and  which  I  always  kept 
in  perfect,  order  despite  its  being  my  studio  as  well, 
I  was  wellnigh  speechless.  I  silently  pointed  to  an 
arm-chair,  and,  seating  myself  in  the  place  I  had  oc- 
cupied before  this  unexpected  interruption,  I  looked  at 
my  visitor. 

There  is  no  denying  that  he  was  a  very  handsome 
man,  on  the  right  side  of  forty,  but  with  prema- 
turely silvered  hair  and  mustache,  large,  bright,  blue 
eyes  of  extreme  kindliness,  a  fresh,  healthful  com- 
plexion, and  the  finely  shaped  hands  of  the  born  sur- 
geon. 

He  returned  my  gaze  with  interest,  and  gave  a  little, 
half-embarrassed,  half-merry  laugh. 

"Let  me  begin  by  saying  that  I  know  all  about  you," 
he  said,  with  a  gleam  of  mischief  in  those  penetrating 
blue  orbs  of  his. 

"All  about  me?"  I  said,  laughing  also.  "It  must 
be  very  dreadful." 

}     "  Well,  as  much  as  our  mutual  friend  Mrs.  R t 

knows,  which  perhaps  is  not  a  great  deal,  but  quite 
enough,  as  it  stands,  to  make  me  desirous  of  redeeming 
the  honor  of  my  profession  in  your  eyes.  You  have 

been  very  badly  treated,  and  were  Dr.  C 1  not 

such  an  antiquated  old  fossil  I  would  make  it  un- 
pleasant for  him.  As  things  are,  however,  I  must  con- 

495 


tent  myself  with  begging  you  to  let  me  do  myself  the 
pleasure  of  taking  up  his  sadly  neglected  duties." 

For  a  long  time  past  I  had  not  encountered  much 
of  the  empressement  which  once  I  had  considered  as 
my  due,  and  this  spontaneous  and  inexplicable  kind- 
liness made  a  very  inconvenient  lump  rise  into  my 
throat. 

"My  dear  doctor,"  I  said  at  last,  "I  cannot  tell  you 
how  touched  I  am  by  your  offer,  but  just  because  you 
are  treating  me  with  such  unparalleled  friendliness  it 
is  my  duty  to  tell  you  that  I  cannot  accept  it." 

"Why  not?"  he  said,  bending  forward  and  scrutiniz- 
ing me  sharply. 

"  I  will  have  to  pocket  my  pride  to  tell  you  the  rea- 
son," I  replied,  giving,  absent-mindedly,  a  stroke  or 
two  to  my  unfinished  painting. 

"That  is  not  necessary,"  he  returned,  quickly.  "I 
can  guess  your  reason,  and  let  me  tell  you  it  is  a  per- 
fectly worthless  one,  and  not  to  be  considered  for  an 
instant." 

"Pardon  me,"  I  interposed,  throwing  down  my 
brushes  and  turning  my  eyes  again  upon  him,  "  I  have 
not  yet  reached  the  point  where  I  can  calmly  accept 
— charity!"  I  concluded,  gulping  down  the  lump  with 
a  violent  effort. 

"Now,  look  here,  my  dear  lady,"  he  said,  suddenly, 
taking  hold  of  both  my  hands,  as  a  very  young 
father  might  have  done,  "we  are  not  going  to  argue 
that  point;  there  is  no  need  to  talk  of  charity,  for  I 
will  expect  you  to  pay  me  when  your  circumstances 
are  once  more  what  they  used  to  be,  so  don't  fret 
about  that.  You  are  here  in  a  foreign  land,  without 
kith  or  kin,  as  I  understand ;  moreover,  you  have  been 
left  in  the  lurch  in  a  most  unprofessional  and  disgust- 
ing manner  by  an  old  scamp  who  should  have  known 

496 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

better.  Surely  you  do  not  wish  me  to  disfigure  my  own 
career  by  leaving  you  at  the  mercy  of  the  first  comer? 
To  begin  with,  I  am  not  going  to  listen  to  any  objec- 
tions, so  you  might  as  well  resign  yourself  to  be  my 
patient.  Come,  now,  give  me  the  history  of  this  case, 
and,  for  mercy's  sake,  let  me  return  to  my  usual  pro- 
fessional attitude." 

Oscillating  between  two  inclinations,  laughter  and 
tears,  I  complied  with  his  request,  for  what  else  could 
I  do?  He  had  a  quiet,  authoritative  manner  which 
brooked  no  resistance,  and  a  direct  simplicity  of  demean- 
or that  made  me  at  once  consider  him  a  friend  in  need 
and  a  friend  indeed. 

He  chatted  with  me  for  over  an  hour,  and,  discovering 
that  I  was  an  enthusiast  about  modern  surgery,  told  me 
of  his  patients,  his  wonderful  operations,  and  interested 
me  so  much  that  when  he  at  last  rose  to  take  his  leave 
I  was  on  the  point  of  begging  him  to  stay  a  little  longer 
in  spite  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour. 

"You  must  come  and  see  my  wife,"  he  said,  while 
I  stood  by  him  in  the  hall  as  he  was  putting  on  his 
coat,  "and  my  children,  too.  I  have  two  little  girls 
and  two  little  boys,  the  last  only  a  month  old — a  boun- 
cing boy  he  is,  too — that  will  give  you  courage  for  what 
is  coming,  although  you  don't  seem  to  be  the  sort  of 
woman  who  needs  encouragement.  I  have  a  brother, 
too,  another  young  whipper-snapper  who  has  just 
graduated  from  a  hospital.  But  don't  be  afraid,  I 
won't  send  him;  I  want  this  job  myself,"  he  continued, 
with  another  of  his  infectious  laughs. 

"You  need  not  fear,"  I  remarked,  dryly,  "I  will  not 
deprive  you  of  my  very  valuable  patronage.  But  you 
must  let  me  tell  you  now  what  I  think  of  what  you 
have  just  done." 

"Spare  my  blushes,"  he  cried,  wrenching  the  door 
s«  497 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

open.  "  You'll  thank  me  later,  when  you,  too,  have  a 
bouncing  boy  to  make  your  life  unbearable." 

"Mind  you,  it  must  be  a  boy,"  I  called  after  him. 
"Don't  you  play  me  any  tricks.  No  girl  for  me." 
He  ran  down-stairs,  laughing  heartily,  and,  from  the 
bottom  of  the  first  flight,  he  responded: 

"Of  course  it  will  be  a  boy.  I  always  oblige  my 
patients  and  obey  their  slightest  whims." 

Slowly  I  closed  the  door  and  took  several  turns  around 
the  room,  whistling  softly — an  execrable  habit  of  mine, 
of  which  I  had  vainly  tried  to  get  rid,  now  that  I  was  in 
circumstances  when  such  infringements  of  generally 
accepted  rules  were  no  longer  chic  or  de  mise. 

"God  bless  that  man!"  I  said  at  last.  "A  strange 
individual,  surely,  who  treats  people  as  well  when  they 
are  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  as  if  they  were  yet  at 
the  top  of  it.  This  is  a  good  omen,  and  something  to 
tell  Fred.  I  wish  I  deserved  it  all  more,  grumbling, 
dissatisfied  fool  that  I  am!" 

During  the  next  few  weeks  I  was  forced  gradually 
to  relinquish  much  of  my  household  duties,  so  much  so 
that  Fred  insisted  upon  my  engaging  the  services  of  a 
slavey.  I  dreaded  this  extremely,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  expense,  but  because  I  had  heard  much  that  was 
dispiriting  about  American  "help,"  and  could  not  bear 
the  thought  of  introducing  so  disturbing  an  element 
into  our  peaceful  and  well-regulated  little  home ;  but 
as  on  two  different  occasions  Fred  had  found  me  lying 
on  the  floor  in  a  dead  faint  when  coming  home,  and 
as,  moreover,  the  lifting  of  coal-scuttles,  the  manage- 
ment of  a  broom,  and  the  washing  of  even  the  plain- 
est of  house-linen  had  become  quite  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, I  consented  to  bespeak  the  assistance  of  a  little 
German  girl,  crooked  of  shape  and  red  of  eyes,  and 
so  reassuringly  ill-favored  that  the  question  of  "fol- 

498 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

lowers"  —  a  momentous  one  for  my  inexperience  — 
seemed  a  singularly  remote  possibility.  I  had,  of 
course,  never  had  to  deal  with  that  class  of  servant, 
and  stood  absolutely  in  awe  of  the  painfully  familiar, 
unconsciously  impertinent  girl  who  bounced  about  the 
kitchen,  addressed  me  as  "marm,"  and  seemed  to  look 
upon  me  as  an  inferior  far  more  than  as  a  mis- 
tress. _, 

Her  willingness  to  get  through  her  work  quickly 
and  thoroughly  was  testified  especially  by  her  wholesale 
breaking  of  crockery,  her  violent  turning  of  mattresses 
upon  the  neighboring  daintily  arranged  toilet-tables, 
and  her  throwing  about  of  saucepans  with  a  clatter 
which  was  enough  to  drive  one  wild. 

The  gentle  art  of  dishing-up  or  of  setting  an  attrac- 
tive table  was  as  foreign  to  her  as  if  she  had  been  a 
Feejee-Islander,  and  I  soon  got  so  tired  of  her  that  it 
was  all  I  could  do  to  endure  her  presence. 

I  was  very  busy  arranging  my  small  domain,  for  I 
took  some  pride  in  having  everything  ship-shape  be- 
fore the  great  event.  In  order  to  economize  space, 
I  packed  up  all  my  finery,  dinner  and  Court  dresses, 
elaborate  walking  and  driving  costumes,  hats,  bon- 
nets, and  chaussures,  leaving  out  only  a  couple  of 
tea-gowns,  a  long,  fur-lined  cloak,  and,  in  short,  only 
what  I  could  wear  under  present  circumstances,  and 
on  the  advice  of  the  janitor,  who  was  a  somewhat  of- 
cious  person,  sent  all  my  trunks  to  what  he  grandilo- 
quently termed  the  storage-rooms  at  the  top  of  the  house. 
As  I  packed  up  all  these  exquisite  things,  it  suddenly 
occurred  to  me  that  I  had  been  very  silly  not  to  sell 
the  greater  part  of  them,  for  they  could  not  have  failed 
to  bring  a  considerable  sum ;  but  thus  to  dispose  of 
clothes  was  so  novel  an  idea  that  it  had  never  presented 
itself  to  my  mind.  I  determined,  however,  if  my  finan- 

499 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

cial  situation  did  not  considerably  improve,  that  I 
would  do  something  of  the  kind  later  on. 

It  had  grown  horribly  cold,  and  was  almost  contin- 
uously snowing  or  sleeting.  I  was  therefore  forced 
to  give  up  the  long  walks — which  more  recently  I  had 
taken  with  Fred  late  at  night — as  the  ground  was  too 
slippery  to  admit  of  such  pedestrian  feats.  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e 
came  once  a  week  to  see  me,  and  I  had  grown  to  trust 
him  blindly,  and,  since  I  was  under  his  care,  to  look 
forward  with  perfect  equanimity  to  whatever  would 
take  place. 

A  rather  ridiculous  incident  marked  these  last  days 
of  February,  for  while  perusing  the  advertisements  of 
the  daily  paper  in  search  of  new  openings  for  my  tal- 
ents, I  had  come  upon  an  advertisement  promising 
to  furnish  information  and  materials  which  would  en- 
able any  one  who  could  paint  on  textiles  to  earn  from 
thirty  to  fifty  dollars  a  week,  and  had  dubiously,  but 
hopefully,  written  to  the  people  and  city  mentioned, 
sending  a  dollar,  as  requested.  In  due  course  of  time 
I  received,  in  return,  a  plethoric  envelope  containing 
two  little  squares  of  cotton  velvet,  one  bright  red,  the 
other  peacock  -  blue,  stamped  with  conventional  sun- 
flowers, and  accompanied  by  an  infinitesimal  tube  of 
Chinese  white,  a  tiny  brush,  and  a  slip  of  paper 
printed  in  large,  red  letters  as  follows: 

TRY  YOUR  HAND  AT  PAINTING  ON  VELVET. 

WHEN  ONCE  YOU  HAVE  MASTERED  THIS  ART 

YOU  WILL  COMMAND  A  LARGE  SALARY  AND 

WE  WILL  OURSELVES  FURNISH  YOU  WITH 

ALL  THE  WORK  YOU  CAN  DO. 

Could  anything  be  more  funny — for  those  who  could 
afford  to  lose  the  dollar?  I  could  not;  but  I  laughed, 
nevertheless,  till  I  almost  cried,  and  hung  the  two 

500 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

squares  of  cheap  velvet  on  the  wall  as  a  warning,  should 
I  ever  be  tempted  again  to  get  myself  cheated  in  a  sim- 
ilar manner. 

Just  at  that  time  I  received  a  most  unpleasant  shock 
in  a  letter  from  Bertrand,  which  arrived  one  snowy 
morning,  when  the  sky  was  lowering  and  the  wind 
howled  dismally  around  my  lofty  eyrie.  To  make  a 
long  story  short,  I  may  as  well  say  at  once  that  the 
boy  had  come  a  cropper  with  his  horse,  had  suffered  a 
fracture  of  the  leg,  and  had  been  confined  for  several 
weeks  to  his  room,  a  fact  of  which  his  unscrupulous 
partner  had  taken  advantage  to  sell  all  that  was  sal- 
able, including  the  ranch  itself,  and  skip  out,  leaving 
poor  Bertrand  nothing  but  his  clothes  and  a  brace  of 
revolvers  to  bless  himself  with. 

Of  course,  in  a  civilized  region,  such  a  sale  would 
not  have  held  good,  but  in  those  days  the  New  Mexico 
border  was  anything  but  civilized,  and  Faustrecht  held 
supreme  sway,  so  much  so,  indeed,  that  hardly  had  the 
boy  sufficiently  recovered  from  his  injuries  to  stand  on 
his  feet  when  he  was  summarily  kicked  out,  and  found 
himself  alone  in  the  Western  world  with  a  singularly 
vicious  bronco,  which  his  ex-partner  had  also  gener- 
ously left  him,  with  a  view  of  affording  him  a  means 
of  exit  from  the  plains,  and  presumably  poor  old  Jim, 
whom,  however,  singularly  enough,  he  did  not  men- 
tion. 

Furious,  but  quite  undaunted,  Bertrand  set  out  on 
his  travels,  but  this  time  without  the  means  of  making 
his  progress  either  a  rapid  or  a  pleasant  one.  He  gave 
me  an  address  where  he  expected  to  arrive  some  time 
or  other,  and,  although  he  did  not  say  so,  it  was  plain 
to  me  that  a  little  money  found  there  upon  his  arrival 
would  not  be  amiss,  and  so,  knowing  what  assistance 
might  now  be  expected  from  his  mother,  I  gathered 

501 


together  what  resources  I  had,  and  sent  him  some- 
thing to  help  him  along;  for  the  thought  of  that  dis- 
abled and  disappointed  lad,  making  his  way  through 
the  great  wilderness  of  the  Southwest,  was  a  torment- 
ing one  to  me,  and  one  that  I  could  have  very  well  done 
without. 

I  easily  guessed — having  gone  through  the  mill  my- 
self— what  reproaches  would  be  addressed  him  from 
the  other  side  of  the  water,  and  to  a  proud  and  over- 
bearing spirit  like  his  it  could  not  fail  to  be  a  most 
humiliating  experience. 

Yet  another  vexation  loomed  large  upon  my  horizon, 
and  that  was  the  choice  which  had  been  made  for  me 
of  a  monthly  nurse.  I  was  thoroughly  inexperienced 
in  such  matters,  for  in  those  days,  throughout  Catholic 
Europe,  Sisters  of  Mercy  were  intrusted  with  all  hos- 
pital and  most  private  practice,  and  in  cases  like  mine 
the  sage  femme,  or  midwife,  invariably  seconded  the 
physician  in  charge.  Now,  a  sage  femme,  whether  in 
town  or  country,  is  generally  a  middle-aged  matron, 
without  any  pretence  to  either  much  technical  educa- 
tion or  social  status,  and  the  person  who  had  been  chosen 

by  Dr.  C 1,  and  who  came  to  call  upon  me 

gowned  in  an  ultra  -  exaggeration  of  fashion  with  a 
much-beplumed  Rembrandt  hat  and  a  collection  of  irri- 
tatingly  jingling  bangles,  was  of  a  totally  different 
sort,  and  had  displeased  me  very  much.  Her  broad 
face,  deeply  pitted  with  small -pox,  was  in  itself  suf- 
ficiently unattractive,  though  that  was  scarcely  her 
fault,  but  her  self-assertive  assumption  of  social  equality 
and  superior  knowledge  of  the  world  had  most  dis- 
agreeably impressed  me.  However,  as  I  am  not  fussy 
by  nature,  and  am  always  ready  to  accept  an  accom- 
plished fact  with  as  few  objections  as  possible,  and, 
moreover,  being  totally  ignorant  of  that  class  of  women, 

502 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

I  had  acquiesced  readily  enough  after  being  told  by 
her  medical  patron  that  she  was  a  graduate  of  a  large 
New  York  hospital,  and  thoroughly  trustworthy  and 
obliging.  I  now  know  better,  and,  after  several  severe 
sieges  of  illness,  must  admit  that,  with  the  exception 
of  a  certain  charming  Miss  M  .  .  .  .  w,  my  opinion 
of  the  American  trained  nurse  is  but  small.  The  other- 
wise remarkably  capable  American  medical  fraternity 
have,  apparently,  not  sufficiently  considered  the  harm 
that  may  be  done  by  introducing  into  their  patients' 
families  intriguing  and  adventurous  persons  who 
combine  an  inconceivable  neglect  of  their  charges 
with  a  strict  personal  attention  to  cordials  and  sick- 
room delicacies,  and  whose  profession,  if  openly  prac- 
tised, would  be  relegated  to  the  sidewalk. 

But  as  the  moment  approached  when  the  nurse  was  to 
take  up  her  residence  with  me,  I  grew  to  dislike  the  idea 
of  her  presence  more  and  more,  until  the  prospect  be- 
came a  perfect  nightmare;  and  when  she  finally  ar- 
rived, I  felt  that  under  no  circumstances  could  I 
ever  surmount  my  dislike  for  this  shrill  -  voiced,  ill- 
mannered  woman  who,  alas!  evinced,  par  dessus  le 
marche,  a  good  deal  of  fondness  for  coarse  banter  and 
strong  waters. 

These  last  few  days  were  not  very  pleasant,  for  I 
received  further  disquieting  news  from  Bertrand,  and 
Fred,  with  a  white,  frightened  face,  continually  looked 
at  me  as  if  I  were  about  to  depart  on  a  far  longer  journey 
than  I  had  yet  undertaken.  To  cap  the  climax,  a  thaw 
set  in,  and  dismal  rains  and  damp  winds  made  the 
always  dreary  outlook  from  the  windows  one  of  the 
most  depressing  I  had  ever  gazed  upon. 

"  I  think  you  had  better  send  for  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e,"  I 
said,  late  one  afternoon,  to  the  nurse,  who,  sitting  by 
the  window,  was  retrimming  her  amazing  picture- 

503 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

hat  with  huge  magenta  roses,  the  very  look  of  which 
made  me  feel  sick  and  faint! 

"What's  the  matter?"  she  said,  in  her  brusque,  un- 
pleasant way.  " Don't  be  fanciful.  You're  all  right!" 

From  where  I  lay  on  the  sofa  I  looked  at  her  a  little 
amused. 

"I  am  not  much  given  to  fancies,"  I  said,  smiling. 
"Send  for  Dr.  W  ...  el" 

"  Humph !  I  don't  take  much  stock  in  him,"  she  grum- 
bled. "He's  too  high-toned  for  my  taste;  you'd  have 
been  a  long  sight  better  off  with  a  general  practitioner. 
No  need  of  a  specialist  in  a  case  like  this." 

I  shrugged  my  shoulders.  Such  heresies  demanded 
no  refutation. 

"Those  bigbugs,"  she  continued,  irritably,  "are  a 
nuisance;  too  finicky  by  half.  Did  you  hear  him  the 
other  day? — ' Nurse,  you  will  please  see  about  the 
sheets  being  properly  aired  and  dried  before  an  open 
fire,  and  you  must  have  everything  to  hand  arranged 
in  proper  order,  everything  brand  -  new,  mind  you,  and 
washed  in  your  presence  separately  from  the  rest  of 
the  linen.'  He  makes  me  tired!" 

I  sat  up,  and,  letting  my  feet  slide  to  the  floor,  said, 
coldly : 

"  Be  good  enough  to  reserve  your  opinion  until  it  is 
asked  for.  Such  sayings  are  entirely  unprofessional, 
as  you  might  know,  since  you  call  yourself  a  trained 
nurse.  I  do  not  think  that  if  the  physicians  who  rec- 
ommend you  were  aware  of  the  fashion  in  which  you 
speak  you  would  be  likely  to  get  many  more  engage- 
ments. And  now  send  for  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e!" 

She  bounced  out  of  her  chair  with  a  violence  which 
sent  her  appalling  rose-garlanded  hat  rolling  under  the 
table. 

"Just  as  you  please,"  she  snapped.  "Of  course  you 

504 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

think  that  you  understand  the  situation  better  than 
I  do." 

"There  is  one  thing  I  understand/'  I  replied,  curtly, 
"and  that  is,  that  if  you  do  not  keep  a  civil  tongue  in 
your  head  I  shall  report  you  to  the  doctor,  and  request 
your  immediate  dismissal." 

In  an  instant  her  expression  changed  and  became 
fawning  and  cringing.  "You  mustn't  mind  what  I 
said,"  she  pleaded.  "I  meant  no  harm.  I  have  a 
bad  twinge  of  neuralgia  this  morning,  and  that  always 
makes  me  cranky.  Lie  down  again,  please  do,  and  I'll 
go  and  telephone  right  away." 

This  was  just  as  I  thought!  The  woman  was  a 
bully,  of  that  there  could  be  no  doubt,  and  to  be  at 
her  mercy  was  not  a  cheerful  prospect. 

In  a  few  minutes  she  returned. 

"The  doctor  is  sick  in  bed,"  she  said,  with  a  glee 
which  would  have  suited  the  announcement  that  she 
had  just  inherited  millions.  "He  wrenched  his  back 
lifting  a  patient  in  the  hospital  this  morning,  and 
can't  move." 

"What's  that?"  I  cried,  hardly  believing  my  ears. 

"He  can't  come,  that's  what  it  is,  and  his  brother, 
with  whom  I  spoke,  suggested  that  you  should  send 

for  Dr.  C 1,  as  he  at  least  knows  something 

about  the  case." 

"Nonsense!"  I  exclaimed.  Then  a  rushing  sound 
surged  in  my  ears,  the  dim  light  of  the  windows  be- 
came suddenly  eclipsed  in  blackness,  and  I  felt  myself 
falling  to  inconceivable  depths.  Somehow  or  other, 
I  thought  that  I  was  in  a  railroad  accident,  and  that  a 
heap  of  wreckage  was  crushing  the  life  out  of  me.  After 
a  seemingly  long  time,  during  which  I  fancied  I  was 
being  carried  to  a  hospital  on  a  stretcher,  and  an  in- 
definite period  of  succeeding  calm,  I  opened  my  eyes. 

505 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

Surely  it  must  all  be  true,  for  I  found  myself  in  bed, 
but,  curiously  enough,  in  my  own  room,  dimly  lighted 
by  shaded  lamps,  and  somebody  was  feeling  my  pulse. 
I  turned  my  head.  It  was  Dr.  C 1. 

With  a  little  gasp,  I  closed  my  eyes  again.  So  it 
had  come  to  that,  after  all! 

"She's  coming  to,  doctor/'  I  heard  the  nurse  exclaim. 

"Oh,  she  doesn't  hear  what  we  say,"  he  muttered. 
"  This  is  going  to  be  a  bad  case,  nurse,  a  very  bad  case. 
I  wish  to  God  W  .  .  .  e  were  here  instead  of  me." 

"Pshaw,  you're  every  bit  as  good  as  he.  I  don't 
take  no  stock  whatsoever  in  him,  as  I  was  telling  the 
patient  this  afternoon,  except  when  it  comes  to  cutting 
and  slashing." 

I  was  now  in  full  possession  of  my  senses,  but  pur- 
posely kept  my  eyes  tightly  closed.  "She  won't  give 
you  much  trouble,"  continued  the  nurse.  "She's  got 
grit,  for  one  thing." 

The  doctor  had  dropped  my  hand,  and  I  could  hear 
him  closing  his  watch,  and  shifting  his  position  un- 
easily. I  set  my  teeth,  and  determined  that,  come  what 
might,  I  would  not  give  them  the  satisfaction  of  know- 
ing wrhat  an  additional  horror  their  presence  was  to  me. 

Hours  passed.  I  heard  the  doctor  state  that  he 
would  stay  all  night,  and  bid  the  nurse  prepare  a  bed 
for  him  somewhere.  Then  Fred  came  home  and  sat  by 
me,  holding  my  hand,  but  still  I  would  neither  speak 
nor  open  my  eyes,  concentrating  all  my  strength  upon 
the  repression  of  even  so  much  as  a  moan,  while  the 
little  travelling-clock  on  my  toilet-table  ticked  ner- 
vously and  rapidly,  as  if  eager  to  rush  over  those  mis- 
erable hours. 

At  last,  when  everything  had  become  absolutely 
silent,  I  ventured  to  glance  around.  A  gray  dawn  was 
smudging  the  curtains  with  gloomy  patches  of  light. 

506 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

Stretched  on  a  sofa,  the  nurse  was  sleeping  profoundly, 
while  on  an  arm-chair  beside  me,  as  once  before  at 
Cairo,  sat  Fred,  looking  ghastly.  Dreading  that  he 
should  speak  and  arouse  the  nurse,  "Hush,  hush!"  I 
whispered. 

"Are  you  better?"  he  asked,  softly. 

"Don't  worry.  I'll  be  all  right.  Try  and  find  out 
if  Dr.  W .  .  .  e  is  better.  I  don't  want  that  other  man. 
Send  to  find  out." 

"I  will  as  soon  as  the  sun's  up." 

"  Then,  please,  go  to  bed  meanwhile,  Fred.  There's 
no  use  in  your  making  yourself  ill.  I  can  manage 
very  well  by  myself."  Better,  in  fact,  I  thought,  for  I 
dreaded  the  scrutiny  of  those  watchful  eyes,  lest  they 
should  discover  the  true  state  of  affairs. 

"I'll  do  nothing  of  the  kind,"  he  replied,  in  the  same 
low  whisper. 

"  Well,  then,  do  go  and  lie  down  in  the  next  room,  at 
least  for  a  little  while,  for  I'm  going  to  sleep." 

He  looked  doubtfully  at  me.  "Would  it  make  you 
feel  easier?  Of  course,  I  shouldn't  sleep.  I'd  be  right 
within  call." 

"  Certainly  it  would  make  me  feel  easier.  It  worries 
me  horribly  to  have  you  sitting  up  for  nothing." 

He  knew  me  too  well  to  resist  any  longer,  and, 
tiptoeing  across  the  floor,  he  disappeared  beyond  the 
portieres  of  his  own  room.  I  waited  until  I  felt  quite 
certain  that,  exhausted  as  he  was,  he  had  dropped  into 
a  slumber.  Indeed,  I  could  hear  his  regular  breathing 
from  where  I  lay.  Then,  very  slowly,  I  got  up,  threw 
a  warm  dressing-gown  over  my  shoulders,  and  holding 
on  to  the  furniture,  and  then  to  the  wall  of  the  hallway, 
crept,  step  by  step,  into  the  dining-room  and  closed 
the  door  behind  me. 

At  last  I  was  alone,  and  with  a  weary  little  sigh  I 

507 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

sat  down  on  the  broad  window-seat  and  looked  up  at 
the  now  glowing  sky,  where  great  masses  of  fleecy 
white  clouds  were  thrown  into  bold  relief  by  the  dark 
vapors  behind  them.  "I  think  I'll  light  a  cigarette," 
I  thought,  and  getting  slowly  up  again,  I  got  matches 
and  the  box  from  a  side-table.  But  the  attempt  was  a 
failure,  and  as  soon  as  I  had  lighted  it,  I  threw  it  away, 
and  taking  up  a  book  from  the  table,  tried  to  read. 

It  happened  to  be  Monte  Cristo,  and  in  the  gradu- 
ally increasing  light,  I  did  my  best  to  awaken  my  old 
interest  in  that  marvellous  story,  but,  like  the  cigarette, 
it  was  soon  cast  aside.  It  was  by  now  becoming  a  bit 
lonely  in  the  little  dining-room,  and  I  wondered  vague- 
ly whether  I  would  have  to  go  back  to  bed,  arouse  the 
nurse  and  doctor,  and  eat  humble-pie  after  all  I 

The  telephone  was  in  the  little  hall  separating  the 
kitchen  from  the  dining-room,  and  I  gazed  longingly 
at  it,  wondering  whether  it  was  too  early  to  inquire 
personally  after  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e.  But  pride  came  to  my 
assistance.  "It  won't  do  for  a  charity  patient,"  I 
thought,  bitterly,  "  to  summon  princes  of  science,  as  if 
they  were  at  her  beck  and  call."  Idly  and  listlessly  I 
watched  the  small  hand  of  the  clock  creep  around  to 
the  figure  six,  and  just  as  the  hour  began  to  strike, 
the  telephone-bell  tinkled. 

I  rose  as  if  struck  by  a  galvanic  shock  and  seized 
the  receiver.  After  the  usual  preliminaries  an  unknown 
voice  said: 

"  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e  wants  to  know  how  the  patient  is  get- 
ting along." 

"Just  the  same,"  I  replied,  steadying  my  voice. 

"Any  complications?" 

"Yes,  I  think  so." 

"Who  are  you?    Send  the  nurse  to  the  telephone." 

"The  nurse  is  asleep." 

508 


"Isn't  Dr.  C 1  there?  Ask  him  to  step  to 

the  'phone." 

"He's  asleep,  too." 

"Good  God,  what  a  state  of  affairs!  Are  they  mad? 
Where  is  the  patient?  Is  nobody  with  her?" 

"I'm  the  patient,"  I  said,  with  a  little  attempt  at  a 
laugh. 

"For  Heaven's  sake!  Have  you  taken  charge  of 
your  own  case?" 

"I  suppose  so.  I  can  do  as  well  as  the  others,  at 
any  rate." 

Here  the  instrument  transmitted  a  string  of  exple- 
tives followed  by  a  hurried :  "  I  beg  your  pardon.  I'm 
Dr.  W  .  .  .  e's  assistant,  and  I  will  at  once  report  to  him 
what  you  have  just  told  me." 

"Tell  him,"  I  said,  "that  I'm  ever  so  much  obliged 
to  him  for  his  kind  interest,  and  that  I'd  give  any- 
thing in  the  world  to  have  him  here." 

"I  will.     Good-bye." 

I  was  not  sorry  to  hang  up  the  receiver  and  resume 
my  place  on  the  window-seat,  for  cold  perspiration  was 
streaming  down  my  back. 

"This  Prince  of  science  is  a  real  good  Prince,"  I 
muttered,  and,  somewhat  comforted,  I  applied  myself 
to  tying  the  ribbon  of  my  dressing-gown  in  a  beautiful 
bow!  Half  an  hour  or  so  later,  for  I  had  by  then 
almost  lost  the  notion  of  time,  there  was  a  gentle  peal 
at  the  door-bell.  I  hurried  as  well  as  I  could  into  the 
front  hall  and  admitted  a  tall,  slender,  young  man, 
who,  in  spite  of  his  dark  eyes,  dark  hair,  and  small, 
dark  mustache,  had  a  certain  air  de  famille  with  Dr. 
W .  .  .  e,  which  made  me  say : 

"Are  you  Dr.  Bob?" 

"  Yes,  I  am ;  a  whipper-snapper,  as  you  see,  but  quite 
old  enough  to  raise  the  roof  here.  It's  a  nice  thing  to 

509 


A    DOFFED   CORONET 

leave  you  alone  like  that.  Why,  you  poor  little  woman, 
you  look  like  death." 

He  had  rapidly  thrown  his  overcoat  and  hat  on  a 
chair.  "  Which  way  to  your  room?"  he  said. 

"Second  door  to  the  left,"  I  replied,  faintly.  He 
stooped,  lifted  me  in  his  arms,  and  muttering  some- 
thing between  his  teeth  which  was  not  complimentary 
to  the  doctor  and  nurse  slumbering  sweetly  near  by,  he 
marched  off  with  a  stamping  of  heels  which  would 
have  awakened  the  dead.  Then  carefully  placing  me 
on  the  bed,  and  throwing  a  rug  over  me,  he  strode 
over  to  the  sofa,  and  roughly  catching  the  nurse  by  the 
shoulder  he  shook  her  violently. 

During  the  altercation  which  followed,  and  in  which 
Fred  almost  immediately  joined,  I  lost  comprehension  of 
what  was  going  on,  and  it  was  many  hours  later  when 
I  regained  sufficient  consciousness  and  grasp  of  the 
situation  to  hear  the  gruff  voice  of  Dr.  C 1  ex- 
claiming : 

"I'm  sick  as  a  dog.  I'm  too  old  for  this  kind  of  cir- 
cus. Anyhow,  there's  no  hope  either  for  the  mother 
or  the  child.  There's  only  one  man  in  New  York  who 
would  have  a  chance  of  saving  one  of  them,  and  that's 
W  .  .  .  e.  He  must  be  all  right  by  now.  Seventy 
hours — that's  time  enough  to  nurse  a  wrenched  back. 
Bring  him  here  by  force,  if  you  have  to  carry  him." 

"You  damned  old  rascal,"  cried  Fred,  hoarsely. 
"Get  out!  It's  better  for  her  to  die  in  peace  than 
with  your  assistance.  I'll  go  to  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e  and  get 
him  here  if  he's  alive." 

A  feeling  of  disgust  at  being  the  centre  of  this  tur- 
moil and  such  a  source  of  sorrow  to  poor  Fred  made 
me  turn  my  head  away  with  a  half-smothered  excla- 
mation. 

In  a  flash  he  was  bending  over  me.  "  I'm  going  to 

510 


A    DOFFED    CORONET 

fetch  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e,"  he  said,  with  an  odd  little  break  in 
his  voice.  "Don't  fret.  I'll  bring  him." 

"All  right;  what  time  is  it?" 

"Eight  o'clock." 

"In  the  evening?" 

"Yes." 

"Hm!"  I  muttered.     "What  day  in  the  week?" 

"Friday." 

"I  thought  so!" 

Probably  he  did  not  hear  this  last  remark,  or  he  would 
have  remonstrated  with  that  old  superstition,  and  soon 
I  heard  him  run  out  of  the  room  and  slam  the  front 

door  behind  him.  I  wondered  whether  Dr.  C 1 

was  still  there,  but  did  not  wish  to  inquire.  At  any 
rate,  the  nurse  was  alone  in  the  room,  for  I  could  see 
her  through  my  half-closed  lashes  calmly  perusing  the 
newspaper  under  the  small  circle  of  light  thrown  by  a 
pink-shaded  lamp.  As  silently  as  possible,  I  stretched 
out  my  hand  and  turned  the  face  of  the  little  clock, 
which  had  been  placed  on  the  table  beside  me,  so  that  I 
could  watch  it.  Half  an  hour — an  hour  passed.  Surely 
the  distance  from  Forty  -  third  to  Fortieth  Street  near 
Fifth  Avenue  must  be  longer  than  I  had  imagined. 

At  last,  when  I  thought  I  could  bear  up  no  longer,  I 
heard  the  latch-key  turn  in  the  lock,  and  Fred  entered, 
followed  by  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e,  who  was  wrapped  from  head 
to  foot  in  a  long,  fur-lined  ulster,  the  storm-collar  of 
which  almost  hid  his  face. 

"You  can  thank  him,"  said  Fred,  "for  we  had  to 
nearly  boil  him  in  a  red-hot  bath  before  he  could  stand 
on  his  feet,  and  it  was  all  he  could  do  to  walk  down  to 
the  carriage." 

I  said  nothing,  for  there  was  nothing  to  say ;  but  when, 
having  removed  his  coat,  with  Fred's  help,  he  came 
to  the  bed,  I  held  out  both  my  hands  to  him,  and  I  think 

5" 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

that  he  understood  without  being  told.  The  nurse 
had  precipitately  risen  to  her  feet  and  stood  at  atten- 
tion, and  the  doctor,  whose  pale  and  drawn  face  testi- 
fied to  suffering,  glowered  at  her. 

"  Hurry  up  there!  "  he  said.  "  This  has  lasted  long 
enough.  Go  and  fetch  my  bag  from  the  carriage, 
where  I  forgot  it." 

"Ill  send  the  girl,"  she  said,  bridling. 

"Go  yourself  1"  he  thundered. 

Frightened  and  cowed,  the  woman  rushed  out,  and, 
"Good-for-nothing  jade!"  the  doctor  muttered  after  her. 

"As  to  you,"  he  said,  turning  to  me  with  the  kindest 
smile  I  ever  saw,  "you'll  soon  be  all  right.  Don't 
worry." 

"  I'm  not  worrying  now,"  I  said,  faintly. 

"Where's  Dr.  C 1?"  he  said.     "Confound  the 

man.     I  want  him  for  the  chloroform." 

"Oh,  he's  gone,  I  think,"  I  replied. 

"Gone!     Impossiblel" 

"He  said  he  was  sick." 

"I'll  make  him  sicker  before  I  get  through  with  him. 
I  wish  I'd  brought  Bob;  but  there's  no  time  to  lose, 
and  that  fool  of  a  nurse  can't  be  trusted.  Do  you  know 
anything  about  chloroform?"  he  continued,  turning 
to  Fred. 

"No;  but  I  can  do  what  you  tell  me." 

"All  right;  we'll  try  it  that  way.  Where  is  that 
brute  of  a  woman?" 

She  was  just  coming  in,  and  must  have  heard  him, 
for  her  face  was  a  picture. 

"When  did  the  patient  eat  last?"  he  asked,  curtly. 

"Not  since  yesterday  morning." 

"What,  has  she  taken  nothing?" 

"N-n-no,  except  a  cup  of  beef-tea  last  night,  and 
some  lemonade  to-day." 

5" 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"  Well,  you  are  a  fine  nurse !  Put  some  brandy  and 
a  glass  here  on  this  table.  Do  just  as  I  tell  you,  or 
this  will  be  the  last  case  you  will  ever  attend/' 

"I'm  not  used  to  being  talked  to  like  that,  doctor/' 
she  had  the  audacity  to  reply. 

"Hold  your  tongue,"  he  said,  and  in  such  a  tone 
that  she  collapsed.  If  there  had  been  a  laugh  left  in 
me,  I  should  certainly  have  laughed,  but  as  it  was,  I 
had  reached  the  limit  of  endurance,  and  was  glad 
enough  when  the  sweet,  insidious  smell  of  chloroform 
dulled  every  sensation  but  one  of  curious  lightness 
and  comfort.  I  was  sailing  through  an  intensely  blue 
sky,  among  a  throng  of  dazzling  stars,  on  each  of  which 
stood  a  little  red  gnome,  laughing  at  me.  Then  sud- 
denly I  sank,  sank,  sank,  clutching  desperately  at  a 
sheaf  of  blinding  moon-rays,  and  awoke. 

My  lips  were  burning,  and  I  tried  to  raise  my  hand 
to  find  out  what  was  the  matter,  but  could  not  do  so, 
and  gazed  helplessly  around.  Fred  and  the  nurse  were 
bending  over  me. 

"The  chloroform  has  burned  her  a  little,"  called  the 
woman. 

"Cold-cream,"  replied  the  muffled  voice  of  the  doctor, 
who  was  bending  over  the  sofa. 

"What's  the  matter?"  I  asked,  dragging  out  the 
words  painfully. 

"Nothing/'  gulped  Fred. 

"It's  a  boy,  isn't  it?" 

"Yes,"  said  the  doctor;  "a  fine,  big  boy." 

"Let  me  see  him." 

"Not  yet.  In  a  moment.  Be  a  good  girl.  I'll  be 
with  you  right  away." 

The  perspiration  which  was  dropping  in  my  eyes 
felt  cold  and  clammy,  and  again  I  tried  to  raise  my 
hand  to  my  face,  but  had  to  let  it  drop  helplessly  by 
»  5i3 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

my  side.  The  room  was  very  silent,  save  for  a  little 
splashing  of  water  which  came  from  the  corner  where 
the  doctor  stood,  and  a  faint  aroma  of  brandy  reached 
me  with  growing  persistency. 

"Can  I  see  him  now?"  I  said,  feebly. 

I  heard  a  quick  in-drawing  of  the  doctor's  breath. 
"Not  quite  yet,"  he  muttered. 

"Is  he— dead?" 

"Yes." 

With  sudden  strength  I  raised  myself  on  my  elbow, 
and  said  through  clinched  teeth,  " Bring  him  to  me." 


CHAPTER    XI 

Under  gray  skies,  my  lady  dear, 
Veiled  is  the  beauty  of  the  year, 
The  birds  are  flown;  the  trees,  in  pain, 
Writhe  'neath  the  arrows  of  the  rain, 
Or  the  mist  gathers,  far  and  near. 

So  that  for  golden  days  and  clear, 
And  sweet  surcease  of  darkness  drear. 
We  long — ah,  surely,  not  in  vain! 
Under  gray  skies. 

Heart  of  my  heart,  what  need  we  fear? 
Hand  touching  hand  doth  make  good  cheer 
And  merry  season.     Though  again 
With  flowers  the  summer  load  his  wain, 
For  us  shall  brighter  blossom  here, 
Under  gray  skies. 

M.  M. 

IN  July  I  received  a  letter  from  Dr.  W .  .  .  e,  who 
with  his  family  was  spending  the  summer  at  the  sea- 
side. "Get  your  husband  to  take  a  couple  of  weeks' 
holiday,  and  come,  both  of  you,  and  spend  them  with 
us.  You  need  a  thorough  change  of  scene,  for  I  did 
not  like  your  looks  when  I  saw  you  last.  My  wife 
bids  me  say  that  your  rooms  are  ready  for  you. 
We  are  living  very  quietly,  we  have  a  cow,  and  the 
horses  are  here,  and  altogether  we  are  having  a  very 
pleasant  time.  Don't  trouble  to  write.  Wire  the  hour 
of  arrival,  and  I  will  meet  you  at  the  station.  You 
mustn't  disappoint  us,  for  we'll  take  no  denial.  Don't 

515 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

forget  that  you  owe  it  to  yourself,  and  what  the  future 
is  going  to  bring,  to  take  good  care  of  your  health." 

"Just  like  him,"  I  said  to  Fred.  "That  man  is  a 
wonder.  It  isn't  enough  that  he  should  have  looked 
after  me  as  if  I  were  made  of  glass  for  weeks  and  weeks, 
and  should  have  come  here  every  day  to  superintend 
everything  personally.  Now  he  seems  to  have  taken 
it  into  his  head  to  provide  for  our  holiday.  Really,  I 
don't  think  we  should  accept.  This  is  a  little  too 
much." 

"  On  the  contrary,  I  would  accept  if  I  were  you.  Such 
kindness  would  be  ill -requited  by  a  refusal.  Good 
Lord!  I  wish  I  could  do  something  to  show  him  how 
grateful  I  am!" 

"So  do  I,  God  knows." 

That  evening  I  wrote  back,  thanking  that  friend 
among  friends  in  a  few  short  words,  and  accepting  his 
invitation  for  the  following  Saturday,  and  then  I  set  at 
once  about  my  modest  preparations.  They  had  to  be 
extremely  modest,  for  all  my  clothes,  in  fact  every- 
thing I  possessed  and  had  placed  in  the  trunks,  stored 
in  the  baggage-room,  had  been  stolen.  Silks,  satins, 
velvets,  laces,  priceless  furs  and  dainty  underwear,  tea- 
gowns,  hats,  bonnets,  and  shoes — everything  was  gone ! 
When,  as  soon  as  I  had  begun  to  recover,  I  sent  Fred  to 
get  me  some  clothes,  the  poor  boy  had  come  down  with 
a  disconsolate  face,  holding  in  one  hand  a  pink  silk 
stocking  embroidered  with  tiny  forget-me-nots,  and  in 
the  other,  a  white  satin  silver-heeled  slipper,  and,  throw- 
ing them  in  my  lap,  had  told  me  that  this  was  all  that 
was  left  out  of  my  fourteen  huge  trunkf uls  of  finery. 

He  had  found  the  locks  all  burst  open,  but  the  door 
of  the  room  securely  fastened,  and  on  summoning  the 
janitor  had  received,  pour  tout  potage,  a  curt  statement 
to  the  effect  that  he,  the  janitor,  was  not  responsible; 

516 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

that  there  had  been,  during  the  past  months,  many 
changes  of  servants  and  also  of  tenants  in  the  house, 
and  that,  of  course,  it  would  be  absolutely  impossible 
to  trace  anything. 

We  both  were  too  sad  and  too  discouraged  at  that 
time  to  take  any  steps  in  the  matter,  and,  moreover,  I 
would  not  have  dreamed  of  wearing  again  any  of  those 
objects  after  they  had  been  fumbled  over  in ' '  fences  "  and 
second-hand  shops,  even  if  they  could  have  been  found. 
So  there  the  matter  stood.  And  thus  was  my  wardrobe 
considerably  simplified,  consisting  now  of  two  elaborate 
but  well-worn  tea-gowns,  one  black  and  one  white,  a 
couple  of  peignoirs,  two  pretty  yachting-suits,  which  by 
a  miracle  had  not  been  stored  in  the  trunks  but  at  the 
top  of  a  closet,  and  an  elaborate  gray  silk  dust-coat.  I 
looked  rather  disconsolately  at  this  noble  array,  for  the 
\V  .  .  .  es  received  a  good  deal,  and  even  when  one's 
heart  is  pretty  heavy  and  one's  spirit  pretty  well  bro- 
ken, one  does  not  like,  under  such  circumstances,  to 
look  quite  like  a  beggar. 

I  had  become  acquainted  with  Mrs.  W  .  .  .  e,  whom 
I  had  found  to  be  a  quiet,  sweet,  lovable  woman,  a  model 
mother,  and  as  kind-hearted  as  her  husband,  so,  as  far 
as  they  were  concerned,  it  mattered  but  little  whether  I 
appeared  at  their  table  in  a  two-thousand-dollar  gown 
or  a  plain  muslin,  but  I  did  not  want  them  to  be  ashamed 
of  me,  and  so  I  marched  resolutely  into  the  kitchen 
and  asked  the  buxom  Irish  lady  who  had  replaced 
my  impossible  Dutch  slavey  whether  she  knew  any- 
thing about  plain  sewing. 

"Yes,  mem,"  she  replied.  "I  makes  all  me  own 
clothes.  What  are  ye  afther  wantin'  me  to  do?" 

"  Well,  you  see,  Annie,  we  are  going  to  spend  a  little 
time  with  Doctor  and  Mrs.  W  .  .  .  e,  and,  as  my  gowns 
have  all  been  stolen,  I  have  been  thinking  that  perhaps 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

you  and  I  could  try  and  make  a  couple  of  plain  little 
summer  dresses." 

"Shure  and  we  can,  mem!  Jest  ye  trot  out  an'  buy 
the  matherials,  and  me  and  you'll  set  up  to-night  an' 
start  right  in." 

"You're  a  good  girl,  Annie,"  I  replied,  making  up 
my  mind  that  I  would  give  her  the  silk  shawl  bought 
in  the  Cairene  bazaar,  which  she  so  much  admired 
on  account  of  its  border  of  silver-and-gold  flowerets, 
for  money  was  scarce  and  tips  an  impossibility  just 
then.  My  long  illness  had  left  us  pretty  well  stranded, 
and  although  I  had  resumed  my  decorative  painting 
as  soon  as  I  could  sit  up,  poor  Fred's  thirty-five  dollars 
— for  he  had  been  raised  to  that  munificent  sum — 
made  a  very  poor  show  when  rent,  the  girl's  wages, 
and  food  had  to  come  out  of  it.  Fortunately  I  had 
just  been  paid  for  the  sofa  cushions,  blotting-pads, 
and  shoe -horns  which  composed  my  last  month's 
order,  and  this  enabled  me  to  purchase  enough  black 
and  white  batiste  to  make  four  perfectly  plain  frocks, 
two  of  each  kind,  also  a  sailor-hat,  some  gloves,  and 
two  bathing-suits,  one  for  Fred  and  one  for  me.  We 
worked  early  and  late  until  all  was  ready,  and  finally 
departed  for  our  summer  outing. 

Those  two  weeks  were  delightful.  The  affectionate 
welcome,  the  companionship  of  people  to  whom  we  had 
naturally  become  greatly  attached,  the  freedom  from 
all  care  and  worry,  the  delicious,  cool,  salt  breezes  and 
splendid  surf-bathing,  were  indeed  a  treat,  and  both 
Fred  and  myself  enjoyed  ourselves  thoroughly. 

Our  stay  was  marked  by  a  comical  incident,  which 
I  cannot  forbear  to  mention,  for  it  was  rather  typical  of 
the  makeshifts  to  which  I  had  sometimes  to  resort  in 
those  days.  There  had  been  quite  a  few  little  dinners 
and  informal  luncheons  during  the  first  part  of  our  stay, 

518 


but  towards  its  end  there  came  an  urgent  invitation  for 
the  W  .  .  .  e  family,  including  ourselves,  to  dine  at  a 
fashionable  hotel — in  fact,  one  of  the  most-sought-after 
resorts  of  that  coast — with  an  old  couple  who  were  not 
only  among  the  doctor's  best  clients,  but  who,  having 
taken  a  tremendous  fancy  to  us,  would  accept  no  denial 
from  Fred  and  myself. 

The  occasion  was  to  be  quite  a  gala  one,  for  there 
were  a  number  of  people  invited,  and  so  I  found  myself 
absolutely  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  wear.  I  saw  that 
it  would  pain  both  of  our  kind  hosts  very  much  if  we  did 
not  go.  I  therefore  pondered  and  pondered  and  ponder- 
ed, and  finally  was  struck  by  an  idea  which  proved  a 
brilliant  one.  I  had  bought  in  Egypt  three  or  four 
wide,  long  scarfs  of  white  crepe  de  chine,  and  had  brought 
them  with  me  from  New  York,  thinking  that  they  might 
please  the  W  .  .  .  es'  little  girls,  as  each  of  them  was 
large  enough  to  make  a  dress  for  a  child,  but  fortunate- 
ly for  myself  I  had  not  as  yet  presented  them.  I 
had  also  a  white  silk  flounced  petticoat  which  had 
escaped  the  general  massacre.  On  the  night  of  the 
dinner  I  donned  this  petticoat,  and  draped  and  wound 
the  supple,  shining  scarfs  round  and  round  myself  in 
classic  folds,  fastening  them  in  place  with  pins.  The 
corsage  thus  formed  was  a  chef-d'oeuvre,  leaving  the 
neck  and  arms  bare,  and  terminating  on  one  side  in 
two  long,  gracefully  drooping  ends.  A  couple  of  clus- 
ters of  white  roses  from  the  garden  completed  my  adorn- 
ment, and  I  was  ready. 

After  dinner  our  hostess,  who,  being  a  childless  mill- 
ionairess, thought  a  good  deal  about  dress,  and  spent 
fortunes  upon  it,  took  me  on  one  side  and  asked  me  in 
confidence  the  name  of  the  French  artist  who  had  con- 
ceived and  executed  "  this  exquisite  gown."  " For,"  she 
said,  confidently,  "it  is  French  handiwork,  isn't  it?" 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"It  is,"  I  replied,  laughing,  "I  made  it  myself!" 
Then  I  pointed  out  to  her  the  pins  with  which  the  whole 
thing  was  put  together,  so  much  to  her  amusement  that 
she  immediately  returned  to  the  drawing-room  and  told 
everybody  about  it. 

We  returned  to  town  much  invigorated  and  cheered 
by  these  few  days  of  respite  in  our  toilsome  life,  and 
took  up  our  labors  with  a  new  courage.  I  heard  very 
seldom  from  Bertrand  now,  but  he  was  a  continual 
source  of  anxiety  to  me,  for,  with  true  Breton  stub- 
bornness, he  flatly  refused  to  return  to  Europe  until 
he  had  exhausted  all  possibilities  of  making  a  success 
of  his  sojourn  in  the  West,  and,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  his  mother  still  refused  supplies,  he  remained  un- 
daunted. I  sent  him  what  I  could  whenever  I  knew 
where  he  was,  and  wondered  by  what  miracle  he 
would  be  brought  to  his  senses,  for  here  was  a  boy 
with  the  loveliest  home  on  earth  open  to  him,  a  fine 
future  in  the  service  of  his  country,  if  he  chose  to  pur- 
sue it,  and  a  life  of  cultured  leisure  before  him,  prefer- 
ring to  all  this  the  numberless  hardships  of  a  vaquero 
of  the  plains,  simply  because  he  would  not  confess 
himself  beaten. 

Early  one  morning,  in  the  following  November,  I 
was  still  asleep  when  Annie,  the  Hibernian  cook  and 
generally  useful  lady  already  mentioned,  knocked  at 
my  door  and  reported  that  a  most  dangerous-looking 
desperado  was  peremptorily  demanding  admittance, 
and  that  she  had  chained  and  barred  him  out  with  the 
utmost  difficulty. 

"What  on  earth  do  you  mean,  Annie?"  I  said,  rub- 
bing my  eyes. 

"Faith,  mem,  an'  I  don't  know  what  the  town's 
coming  to,  when  the  perlice  lets  such  impident  rascals 
come  into  honest  folk's  houses." 

520 


CONFOUND     IT,      SHE'S     MY     SISTER,'     SAID      BERTRAND, 
WRATHFULLY !" 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"But  what  does  he  want?"  I  asked,  quite  bewildered. 

"Thanks  be  to  the  Howly  Mother,  I'm  no  greenhorn 
any  more,  or  I  might  ha'  been  took  in  by  his  blandan- 
dherin',  for  he  had  the  owdaciousness  to  say  he  was 
own  brother  to  ye,  and  when  I  laughed  in  the  face  of 
him  he  slammed  a  big  paper  of  roses  he  had  in  his  fist 
down  on  the  flure,  an'  says  again,  mad-like, '  Confound 
it,  she's  my  sister/  says  he." 

That  was  enough  for  me.  No  one  but  Bertrand 
could  have  attempted  such  an  entree,  and,  throwing  a 
bath-robe  over  my  shoulders,  I  rushed  to  the  door,  leav- 
ing my  factotum  to  follow,  petrified  with  a  surprise 
which  was  intensified  to  the  point  of  stupor  when  she 
saw  the  wild  desperado  hugging  me  like  a  bear,  and 
nearly  crying  over  me. 

When  Fred,  who  had  been  awakened,  en  sursaut,  by 
the  commotion,  had  joined  us,  simply  but  effectively  clad 
in  his  azure  pyjamas,  and  when  our  incoherent  exclama- 
tions of  "My  poor  old  boy!"  and  "  You  dear  little  girl!" 
"  Glad  to  see  you,  old  chap. "  "  How  are  you,  old  man?" 
"Fred,  it's  good  to  be  home!"  had  somewhat  subsided, 
I  stepped  back  a  little,  took  a  good  look  at  this  last  scion 
of  an  ancient  and  noble  House,  and  suddenly  burst  into 
uncontrollable  laughter,  for  really,  except  on  the  stage, 
I  had  never  seen  such  a  typical  cutthroat. 

His  hair,  long  and  lanky,  framed  his  thin,  haggard 
face,  and  fell  in  bushy  masses  from  under  his  weather- 
beaten,  silver-bound  sombrero ;  a  buckskin  shirt,  shrunk 
by  rain  and  storm,  was  tucked  into  regulation,  fringed, 
cow-boy  trousers,  bespattered  with  mud,  and  spurs  of 
enormous  size  jangled  at  his  heels,  while  around  his 
middle  a  broad  cinch-belt  supported  a  couple  of  knives 
and  an  empty  revolver-pocket,  the  New  York  police 
having  most  unkindly  relieved  him  of  his  "gun,"  de- 
spite his  protestations!  The  picturesqueness  of  his 

521 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

attire  was  further  enhanced  by  a  red  cotton  handker- 
chief loosely  knotted  about  his  throat,  and  a  short,  raw- 
hide lariat  drooping  gracefully  at  his  side. 

Laughing,  too,  he  stepped  back  into  the  hall,  and,  lift- 
ing from  the  ground  a  big  bunch  of  roses,  handed  them 
to  me,  saying :  "  This  represents  the  last  of  my  cash — 
and,  Lord!  I'm  hungry!  Give  me  something  to  eat." 

This  sentence  froze  the  laughter  on  my  lips,  and,  turn- 
ing fiercely  on  the  gaping  Annie,  I  bade  her  bring  to 
the  dining-room  everything  the  larder  contained,  and 
be  quick  about  it. 

"To  think  that  I  thought  thim  people  was  respect- 
able! A  nice  villyan  to  be  lettin'  into  the  house  to  be 
murtherin'  of  us  all  in  our  beds!"  she  muttered,  as  she 
appeared  in  the  kitchen. 

"  Shrewd  person,  that ! ' '  ejaculated  Bertrand.  "  Have 
you  had  her  long?" 

"Yes,  quite  a  while;  but  I  won't  have  her  much 
longer  if  she  continues  like  that — the  idiot!"  I  replied. 

"  Now,  don't  be  unjust,"  said  Fred.  "  How  could  she 
imagine  that  a  proud  coronet  lies  concealed  under  this 
remarkable  and  time-honored  sombrero?" 

When  Bertrand  had  sampled  cold  meat,  sardines, 
pickles,  eggs,  cheese,  marmalade,  coffee,  beer,  and  ten 
or  twelve  other  eatables  and  drinkables — for  this  was 
Saturday  and  a  holiday  was  in  prospect,  so  our  pantry 
was  unusually  well  stocked — he  sank  back  in  his  chair 
with  a  sigh  of  content. 

"  Ouff !"  he  said,  loosening  his  belt.  "  I  am  beginning 
to  feel  better.  I'd  like  to  know  how  many  times  I've 
tightened  this  blessed  leather  to  make  my  hunger  small." 

So  he,  too,  had  been  hungry!  I  took  in  both  my 
own  his  work-hardened  and  roughened  hand,  and  de- 
clined to  part  with  it  again  until  he  had  told  us  some 
of  his  adventures. 

522 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"Oh,  I  wasn't  going  to  give  in  till  I  really  couldn't 
help  it,"  he  continued.  "I've  tried  a  little  of  every- 
thing. My  last  job  was  barkeeping  in  a  God-forsaken 
mining-camp.  I've  also  been  a  chucker-out  in  a  sim- 
ilar establishment  yet  farther  West.  I  had  charge  of 
a  coffee  -  store  in  a  prohibition  town  to  make  up  for 
that,  and  for  two  weeks  I  washed  bottles  in  a  bum 
hotel  in  Denver.  Then  I  drove  a  baker's  cart  in  Lead- 
ville,  and  used  to  feed  my  face  with  bread  on  the 
quiet.  Between  times,  and  when  I  wanted  to  move 
from  place  to  place,  after  my  poor  old  bronco  had  died 
of  a  broken  heart,  I  occupied  my  leisure  hours  in  steal- 
ing rides  on  freight-trains,  and  if  my  hide  had  been  a 
little  tougher  I'd  have  reached  New  York  ong  before 
this ;  but  I  got  weary  of  the  application  of  the  train- 
men's boots,  and  gave  it  up.  So  I  took  a  leaf  out  of 
the  actor's  book,  and  hoofed  it  along  the  ties,  except 
once,  when  I  abducted  a  hand-car,  and  worked  it  at 
a  furious  rate  for  a  good  many  miles,  yelling  at  the  top 
of  my  voice,  and  shooting  off  my  gun  at  regular  inter- 
vals to  baffle  pursuit  and  cover  my  trail." 

Fred  rose  solemnly,  and,  holding  out  his  hand,  said, 
impressively:  "My  Lord  Marquis,  you  are  a  remark- 
able man,  and  an  honor  to  your  family.  There  is  an 
invincible  devilment  in  both  your  sister  and  yourself 
which  commands  my  respect  and  awe." 

"Well,"  he  replied,  gravely  pump-handling  with  his 
enthusiastic  brother-in-law, "  I've  caved  in  at  last.  Our 
imperial  lady  mother  has  unconditionally  surrendered 
two  or  three  times,  but  that  alone  wouldn't  have  de- 
cided me,  for  I  wasn't  going  to  live  on  her,  not  if  I  knew 
it!  But  since  my  estimable  god-father  has  kicked  the 
bucket,  and  has  left  me  enough  to  make  me  quite  in- 
dependent until  I  become  of  age  and  get  into  my  money 
— which  will  be  soon  now,  thank  God! — I'm  off  by  the 

523 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

next  steamer,  and  I'd  like  jolly  well  to  take  you 
along." 

"My  dearest  boy/'  I  said,  rising  and  beginning  to 
clear  the  table,  "I  will  never  set  foot  in  Europe  again 
until  I  can  do  so  in  exactly  the  same  fashion  as  I  left 
it.  I'd  sooner  starve  some  more  than  be  patronized 
and  kindly  assisted  by  anybody,  so  that  settles  it." 

"Assisted!  Well,  there's  little  fear  of  that!  'Ma- 
dame M8re '  is  so  much  afraid  that  you  will  accept  help, 
even  from  me,  that,  instead  of  cabling  me  money  for 
my  ticket  home,  she  induced  my  late  godfather's  banker 
to  send  me  here,  poste  restante,  an  order  for  a  civilized 
outfit  on  a  big  tailoring  firm  and  a  ticket  to  Havre, 
where  her  agent  is  to  meet  me.  So  I'll  have  to  borrow 
a  few  dollars  from  you,  if  I  wish  to  resume  the  privi- 
leges of  my  rank  and  tip  the  stewards  on  board.  I've 
got  my  pockets  full  of  pawn-tickets  from  places  all 
over  the  West,  where  I  had  to  hang  up  pistols,  guns, 
watch,  shirt-studs,  pins,  etc.,  and  God  knows  how  I'll 
ever  redeem  them,  from  that  distance!" 

"I  suggest  that  we  make  a  souvenir-album  of  such 
documents,"  I  remarked.  "It  might  take  the  place  of 
the  one  containing  the  royal  autographs  that  was  stolen 
from  me  here  two  years  ago." 

•  "What  has  become  of  Jim?"  asked  Fred,  sud- 
denly. "You  never  mentioned  him  since  you  left  the 
ranch." 

'  Bertrand  rose  abruptly,  threw  his  half-burned  cigar- 
ette in  the  fire,  and  took  two  or  three  turns  around  the 
room  before  he  answered.  Finally,  with  his  back 
towards  us,  and  gazing  intently  out  of  the  window, 
he  answered,  shortly:  "Jim  died  of  pneumonia  last 
November,  and  I  had  sooner  not  speak  about  it,  for, 
God  knows,  he  was  the  best  friend  a  man  ever  had. 
With  him  went  my  luck,  for,  had  he  been  alive,  that 

524 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

scoundrelly  partner  of  mine  would  never  have  dared 
to  rob  me." 

I  was  thunderstruck,  and  especially  ashamed  to 
think  that  our  own  troubles  had  made  me  forgetful 
until  that  very  moment  of  the  faithful  servant  who  had 
followed  his  master  with  such  old-time  loyalty.  "  Ce 
que  c'est  que  de  nous/'  I  thought,  dropping  the  subject, 
for  I  saw  that  this  was  a  tender  spot  with  Bertrand 
that  had  best  remain  untouched. 

A  week  later,  attired  in  the  height  of  fashion  and 
carrying  an  irreproachable  and  well-filled  valise,  Ber- 
trand left  the  little  flat  which  he  had  entered  as  a  ragged 
and  fear-inspiring  desperado.  We  drove  down  with  him 
to  the  steamer,  and  I  thought  my  heart  would  have 
broken  when,  to  the  sound  of  a  dismal  melody  exe- 
cuted by  the  ship's  orchestra,  the  great  vessel  glided 
from  the  pier,  homeward  bound,  and  I  caught  a  distant 
glimpse  of  the  last  of  my  blood  and  kin  waving  to  us 
a  final  adieu. 

Sadly  Fred  and  I  returned  to  what  we  now  called 
"home,"  and  where  Bertrand's  carefully  preserved 
roses  were  still  adorning  my  painting-table.  Another 
chapter  of  our  life  was  closed !  We  had,  as  on  several 
previous  occasions,  strained  every  nerve  to  make  this 
long-lost  brother  believe  that  we  were  far  better  off  than 
was  really  the  case,  and  our  little  exchequer  was  sadly 
depleted  by  what  we  had  given  him  for  the  casual  ex- 
penses of  his  return  trip.  I  could  not  help  thinking 
bitterly  of  the  luxurious  home  in  which  this  arrange- 
ment that  deprived  us  of  our  truly  hard-earned  money 
had  been  made,  in  full  knowledge  of  our  circumstances, 
and  the  unlikelihood  of  our  allowing  the  dear  boy  to 
leave  us  empty-handed. 

Another  winter  came  and  went,  terminated  by  the 
most  fearful  blizzard  which  New  York  has  ever  known, 

5*5 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

and,  while  the  streets  were  still  blocked  with  mountain- 
ous drifts,  the  telephone  and  telegraph  wires  hanging 
in  broken  tangles  to  the  buried  sidewalks,  and  ail  means 
of  transportation  at  a  stand-still,  once  again  Dr.  W . . .  e 
was  summoned  hurriedly  to  my  bedside,  where  he  was 
to  have  yet  another  of  those  grim  battles  with  death, 
from  which  he  has  so  often  come  forth  a  victor.  That 
battle,  than  which  he  has  had  few  harder,  was  fought 
and  won,  and  after  many  hours  he  joyfully  laid  in  my 
arms  the  long-expected  treasure,  the  thought  of  which 
had  made  so  many  bitter  moments  endurable.  And  a 
treasure  he  was  and  still  is,  God  bless  him !  A  strong, 
beautiful,  dark-eyed  boy,  far  excelling  our  fondest  hopes. 

A  new  life  began  for  us,  the  joys  of  which  fully  repaid 
us  for  the  miseries  that  had  gone  before,  though  there 
were  many  hard  experiences  yet  to  come. 

It  was,  perhaps,  the  hardest  of  all  when,  in  the  heat 
of  the  succeeding  summer,  little  Alain  fell  dangerously 
ill.  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e  was  in  Europe,  and  his  brother,  who 
attended  the  child,  ordered  that  he  be  taken  out  of  the 
hot,  burning  city  without  a  moment's  delay.  With 
blank  horror  I  counted  the  few  dollars  which  composed 
our  fortune,  and  had  to  confess  to  myself  that  if  I  could 
not  beg,  borrow,  or  steal,  the  child  would  die. 

The  time  had  indeed  come  for  me  to  pocket  my  pride, 
and  I  cabled  to  my  mother,  asking  her  to  wire  me  five 
hundred  dollars  of  the  money  that  was  really  mine, 
making  it  plain,  despite  the  charges  for  extra  words, 
that  it  was  a  matter  of  life  and  death. 

With  agony  in  my  heart  I  awaited  the  reply.  It  was 
short  and  concise,  and  consisted  of  but  one  word : 

"No." 

With  the  pink  paper  crushed  in  my  hand  I  gazed  for 
a  moment  at  the  little,  waxen  face  in  the  cradle,  and 
then,  trusting  him  for  the  first  time  to  the  servant,  I 

526 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

rushed  out  of  the  house,  flew  breathlessly  to  the  private 
office  of  the  manufacturer  who  had  employed  me  so 
long  as  a  designer  of  textile  patterns,  caught  the  terri- 
fied little  Hebrew  by  his  coat-collar,  and,  unconsciously 
shaking  him  as  I  spoke,  practically  demanded  his 
money  or  his  life,  forgetting  that  it  was  not  I,  but  a 
protege1  of  mine,  who  was  doing  his  work. 

When  I  left  him  I  was  ashamed  of  myself  and  of  my 
scathing  dislike  and  contempt  for  his  entire  race  which 
had  indeed  received  its  punishment.  That  ill-favored, 
mean-looking  little  person  had  acted  like  a  gentleman, 
and  paid  me  in  advance  for  six  months'  work,  with  a 
simplicity  and  generosity  which  made  it  hard,  indeed, 
for  me  to  make  my  way  up-town  calmly  and  decorously. 

Broken  pride  is  perchance  the  most  painful  of  all  fract- 
ures, and  I  was  glad  that  the  bustle  and  preparation 
of  our  departure  for  a  neighboring  sea-side  resort  kept 
me  from  realizing  how  completely  smashed  mine  was. 

When  we  returned  to  town  in  the  autumn,  I  called 

upon  my  old  friend,  A n,  who  greeted  me  with 

an  enthusiasm  which  made  it  comparatively  easy  for 
me  to  undertake  the  breaking  in  of  some  ladies'  hacks 
and  hunters  during  the  winter  months  at  a  handsome 
remuneration.  I  contemptuously  crushed  under  my 
heel  the  vigorous  little  shoots  struggling  into  life  from 
that  wrecked  pride  of  mine,  and  was  recompensed  when, 
long  before  the  end  of  the  six  months — since  my  new 
occupation  had  left  me  no  time  for  silk  designing — I 
was  able  to  refund  the  money  advanced  to  me  by  my 
friend  the  silk  manufacturer. 

I  even  committed  the  extravagance  of  bringing  to 
him  the  crisp,  new  greenbacks  enclosed  in  a  pocket- 
book,  on  one  side  of  which  were  his  initials,  and  on  the 
other  my  crest,  exquisitely  executed  in  gold  by  Tif- 
fany's best  designer, 

527 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"I  have  come  to  bid  you  good-bye/'  I  said,  placing 
the  little,  pink-ribboned  package  on  his  desk.  "  I  must 
now  give  up  working  for  you,  since  in  the  spring  I 
shall  leave  New  York  for  the  country,  where  we  will 
henceforth  live  all  the  year  round.  This  will  enable  me 
to  put  into  execution  a  long-cherished  plan  for  earning 
my  living.  You  have  been  a  good  friend  to  me,  and  I 
wish  I  could  make  you  realize  how  grateful  I  am  and 
will  continue  to  be." 

He  had  untied  the  little  package,  and  was  gazing 
with  amazement  at  its  contents. 

"Who  are  you,  really?"  he  asked,  timidly. 

"No  longer  anybody,"  I  said,  with  a  smile.  "If  you 
ever  think  of  me,  all  you  need  do  is  to  remember  me 
as  a  mother  whose  child  you  saved.  That  will  make 
a  pleasant  pillow  for  you  to  lie  on.  Good-bye,  and 
God  bless  you!" 

In  the  following  May  we  removed  to  a  pretty  house 
on  the  Sound,  with  sufficiently  large  grounds,  and  a 
nice  stable  attached.  Once  settled  there,  we  were  so 
comfortable  that  I  began  to  imagine  that  we  had  weath- 
ered the  worst  of  the  storm,  but,  alas!  in  a  little  while 
another  blow  descended  upon  me  with  such  unexpected 
violence  that  it  made  me  stagger  and  all  but  fall. 

Hard  work,  sorrows,  and  disappointments  had  at  last 
told  upon  Fred,  and  one  evening  he  came  home  des- 
perately ill.  For  twenty-one  days  and  nights  I  kept 
my  vigil  at  his  side,  forcing  myself  to  stay  awake 
by  living  on  black  coffee.  I  had  need  to  do  so,  for 
the  word  "contagion"  having  been  pronounced  by 
some  ill-informed  person,  the  servants,  of  whom  I  now 
had  three  in  the  house,  not  to  mention  the  stablemen, 
left  me  in  a  body,  and  I  found  myself  with  a  delirious 
patient,  a  fretful  baby — who  in  those  first  days  of  dis- 
tress sickened  with  a  sharp  attack  of  tonsillitis — and  all 

528 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

the  work  of  the  house  besides,  in  which  my  only 
helper  was  a  little  colored  groom  of  sixteen,  without 
whose  devotion  and  eagerness  to  help  I  would  really 
have  given  up  all  hope  of-  ever  pulling  through. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  expenses  of  this  long 
and  terrible  illness  far  exceeded  what  I  could  manage  to 
make,  overworked  as  I  was  already,  and  one  fine  day  I 
looked  sadly  and  helplessly  at  my  last  twenty-five  cents ! 

That  afternoon  a  fellow- worker  of  Fred's,  whom  I 
knew  casually,  stopped  on  his  way  from  a  day's  outing 
in  the  neighborhood  to  inquire  after  "his  good  friend." 
Driven  to  desperation,  I  asked  him  whether  he  could 
obtain  for  me  a  month's  salary  in  advance  from  their 
mutual  chief. 

"Easy  as  rolling  off  a  log,  my  dear  madame,"  he 
said,  cheerfully.  "I  will  bring  it  myself  to-morrow." 

I  was  overwhelmed  with  gratitude.  Truly  this  loose 
limbed,  awkward,  sandy-haired  Scotchman  was  a  trump, 
and  I  thought  that  it  is  in  such  moments  of  Sturm 
und  Drang  that  one  finds  out  how  much  more  real 
goodness  there  is  in  the  world  than  one  is  generally  in- 
clined to  believe,  and  so,  with  reviving  hope  and  con- 
fidence, I  awaited  what  the  morrow  would  bring. 

It  brought  my  Scotch  friend  bustling  into  my  pres- 
ence with  an  empressement  which  touched  me  to  the 
heart.  Diving  into  his  inside  pocket,  he  brought  forth 
ten  new  ten-dollar  bills,  and,  laying  them  on  the  table 
before  me,  said,  grandiloquently: 

"  I  didn't  bother  the  office.  It  was  much  easier  for  me 
to  lend  you  that  myself." 

"Oh,  I  can't  think  of  accepting  your  money,"  I  said, 
cruelly  disappointed.  "You  are  very  kind,  but  you 
shouldn't  have  done  this,"  and  I  pushed  away  the 
eagerly  expected  supply. 

"My  dear  madame,"  he  replied,  laughing,  "I  quite 
34  529 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

understand  that  you  don't  want  to  accept  this  without 
making  some  return.  In  a  month  you  will  hand  me 
back  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  or,  if  that  be  too 
soon  for  you,  let's  make  it  two  hundred  dollars  at 
two  months.  That  '11  square  us,  I  guess." 

I  rose  and  looked  quietly  at  him. 

"There  are,  I  believe,  usurers  to  be  found  in  New 
York,  and  I  perceive  that  it  will  be  a  great  deal  better 
to  address  myself  to  them,  especially  as  it  will  not  in- 
clude my  having  to  receive  them  as  friends.  If  you 
are  in  a  hurry  to  return  to  New  York,  as  I  do  not 
doubt  you  are,  I  will  order  the  dog-cart  to  drive  you 
to  the  station." 

For  a  moment  he  stood  looking  at  me,  then  his  eyes 
dropped  and  his  face  turned  scarlet.  "  I  only  meant  to 
accommodate  you,"  he  said,  with  a  vague  wave  of  his 
hand.  "Business  is  business." 

"Quite  so,"  I  remarked;  "but  I  never  like  to  mix 
business  with  pleasure.  You  must  remember  that 
from  the  first  I  refused  to  borrow  otherwise  than  from 
my  husband's  employer,  who  has  always  behaved  de- 
cently to  him,  and  that  is  why  there  is  nothing  left  for 
me  to  do  but  to  thank  you  for  so  far  exceeding  my 
modest  demand.  Would  you  like  the  dog-cart?" 

"No,  thank  you,"  he  muttered,  "I'll  go  by  the  car. 
And — oh,  how  is  your  husband  to-day?" 

"Much  worse,"  I  said,  slowly,  "so  you  see  it  is 
perhaps  better  that  I  should  have  been  prevented  from 
contracting  a  debt  towards  his  office." 

Then,  turning  my  back  upon  him,  I  left  him  stand- 
ing there  and  returned  to  the  sick-room. 

On  the  morrow  A n  telegraphed  to  me  to  find 

out  whether  a  handsome  colt  I  had  been  training  was 
for  immediate  sale,  and,  on  my  replying  in  the  affirma- 
tive, came  down  himself  to  fetch  the  animal,  bringing 

530 


A  DOFFED    CORONET 

with  him  a  sum  of  money  which  made  it  possible  for 
me  to  pursue  my  desperate  voyage  under  half-steam. 

It  was  three  months  before  Fred  was  able  to  resume 
work,  and  by  that  time  I  was  fairly  done  for.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  first  unbroken  sleep  in  three  weeks — 
until  then  I  had  slept  only  by  cat-naps  in  a  chair — 
which  I  took  on  the  night  when  the  doctor  pronounced 
him  out  of  danger,  for  the  ludicrousness  of  my  camp- 
ing-outfit was  the  first  humorous  touch  in  that  inter- 
minable stretch  of  misery.  Lying  at  full  length  on 
the  carpet  at  the  foot  of  his  bed,  with  a  fat  Burke' 's 
Peerage  under  my  head  as  a  pillow,  and  a  bath-robe 
thrown  over  me,  I  was  reminded  of  the  joke  which  Ber- 
trand  used  to  make  when,  in  the  old  days  at  the  flat,  we 
used  to  make  shift  to  put  up  one  of  our  rare  friends  for 
the  night,  and  he  used  to  hospitably  suggest  that  we 
lay  him  on  two  chairs  and  cover  him  up  with  a  walk- 
ing-stick! I  dreaded  the  possibility  of  my  not  awaken- 
ing if  I  were  needed  either  by  my  patient  or  my  baby, 
so  I  had  taken  these  precautions  not  to  be  too  comfort- 
able; but,  alas!  even  such  measures  were  in  vain,  for 
no  sooner  had  I  closed  my  eyes  than  I  fell  into  the  deep, 
dreamless  sleep  of  total  exhaustion,  and  was  only  awak- 
ened many  hours  later  by  the  piteous  cries  of  poor  little 
Alain,  who  had  crawled  out  of  his  crib,  and  was  holding 
me  tightly  by  the  neck,  desperately  sobbing,  "Mum- 
mie  dead!  Mummie  dead!" 

Thinned  down  to  a  shadow,  and  inexpressibly  weary, 
I  struggled  through  Fred's  long  convalescence,  har- 
assed beyond  expression  by  that  terrible  question  of 
servants,  which  is  the  bane  of  all  American  households. 
Indeed,  I  must  be  pardoned  for  having  sometimes  felt 
as  if  it  were  hardly  worth  while  to  stagger  on  any 
longer,  for  both  the  W .  .  .  es  were  abroad,  and  the 
summer  season  had  driven  the  few  friends  we  had  to 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

seas  or  mountains,  American  or  Continental.  Our 
dear  Archbishop  was  in  Rome,  and  had  it  not  been 
for  the  bi-monthly  letters  of  that  one  ever  -  faithful, 
peerless  friend,  that  sister -soul  who,  although  I  had 
invariably  concealed  from  her  the  straits  we  were  in, 
wrote  with  a  tenderness  and  love  that  neither  distance 
nor  time  ever  dulled,  and  who  at  no  time  made  me  feel 
the  gulf  which  separates  a  throne  from  the  place  which 
now  was  mine,  truly  I  would  have  been  sorely  tempted 
to  give  up  the  fight. 

During  the  following  year  a  regular  horde  of  domes- 
tics swept  destructively  through  our  home,  and  I  was 
granted  the  privilege  of  sampling  specimens  of  every 
nationality  which  the  great  sewer  of  European  emigra- 
tion discharges  upon  American  shores.  All  were,  with- 
out exception,  incarnations  of  incompetence,  careless- 
ness, and  impudence,  differing  only  in  the  proportions 
of  these  ingredients  to  one  another,  and  when  the  last- 
named  became  of  an  active  rather  than  a  passive  quality, 
so  to  speak,  each  creature's  stay  abruptly  terminated. 

There  was,  for  example,  a  vivacious  French  cook  most 
melodiously  inclined,  who  insisted  on  accompanying  her 
merry  snatches  of  Parisian  cafe-chantant  ditties  by  a 
lively  pounding  of  her  "  Louiss-Squintz  "  heels — as  the 
village  shoemaker  called  them  —  on  the  kitchen  floor, 
which  pleasant  sounds  were  borne  to  me  by  every  hot- 
air  register,  thanks  to  the  fact  that  the  furnace-room 
abutted  on  her  domain.  There  was  a  very  youthful 
butler,  who,  eager  to  display  his  manliness,  used  to 
groan  forth  in  a  grewsome  bass  the  plaintive  strains 
of  "Silver  Threads  among  the  Gold"  with  terrible  per- 
sistence while  he  busied  himself  in  the  pantry,  inhar- 
monious information  as  to  "Darling's  growing  old" 
floating  up  the  stairs  and  making  me  grit  my  teeth  in 
impotent  despair;  and  yet  another  adolescent  male 

532 


"  SA  MAJESTE  BEBE  " 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

domestic,  hailing  from  Cork,  who  was  given  to  whistle 
away  the  entire  day  with  a  diabolical  and  nerve-rack- 
ing shrillness.  When  I,  first  gently,  then  authorita- 
tively, and  then  with  violence,  urged  him  to  desist,  he 
lachrymosely  declared  that  it  was  not  his  fault,  since 
the  sound  of  which  I  complained  was  nothing  more 
nor  less  than  the  wind  escaping  through  an  aperture 
occasioned  by  the  loss  of  his  front  teeth.  But  the  lad 
being  otherwise  of  the  Barkis  tribe  and  very  willing, 
I  submitted  in  sheer  self-defence  to  purchase  for  him 
a  set  of  artificial  teeth,  and  thenceforth  he  no  longer 
whistled,  but,  alas!  he  took  to  lifting  up  his  voice  in 
song,  which  was  worse. 

When,  however,  he  took  to  playing  pranks,  I  began  to 
doubt  whether  I  really  needed  his  services.  He  started 
in  by  painting  the  entire  length  of  the  white-oak  banis- 
ters with  a  mixture  of  alcohol  and  shoe-polish,  because, 
in  his  opinion,  it  did  not  sufficiently  harmonize  with 
tike  heliotrope  paper  on  the  walls,  thus  proving  the 
win  of  my  Ai  dinner-dress,  evoked  from  the  very  last 
relics  of  a  glorious  past.  After  several  other  freaks  of 
fancy  one  morning,  when,  more  than  usually  depressed, 
I  was  sitting  alone  at  breakfast  with  my  back  towards 
the  open  window,  he  ended  by  introducing  from  outside 
the  ripe  remains  of  a  kitten  suspended  by  the  tail  from 
a  fishing-pole,  which  he  jerked  up  and  down  under  my 
nose  in  a  manner  which  led  me  for  a  moment  to  be- 
lieve that  the  blow  had  at  last  fallen  and  my  mind  had 
given  way.  When  I  recognized  my  error  I  cast  him 
forth  more  in  anger  than  sorrow,  and  his  place  knew 
him  no  more. 

In  a  moment  of  foolish  extravagance  I  had  engaged 
an  elderly  English  nurse  of  great  piety  for  Alain,  who, 
having  now  reached  the  age  where  his  chief  occupation 
was  to  tumble  down  and  injure  himself,  needed  per- 

533 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

petual  watching.  Bitter  was  my  regret  at  having  done 
so,  for,  alas  1  she,  too,  was  musically  inclined,  her  melo- 
mania  taking  the  form,  as  she  shrewdly  put  it,  of 
"training  her  little  charge  towards  God"  by  emitting, 
in  the  flattest  of  flat  voices,  such  sacred  melodies  as 
"Onward,  Christian  Soldiers,"  and  "Awake,  My  Soul," 
from  morning  till  night,  whether  in  the  nursery,  on  the 
beach,  or  in  the  garden. 

Poor  little  Alain,  whose  musical  ear  was  in  danger 
of  being  totally  vitiated,  deemed  it,  of  course,  necessary 
to  chime  in,  and  the  louder  his  aged  companion  raised 
her  pious  notes  to  Heaven,  the  more  did  the  little  chap 
pipe  forth  his  baby  imitation,  ending,  usually,  with  a 
dismal  howl  when  sternly  reproved  by  her,  for  distorting 
the  sacred  words  with  his  infant  tongue. 

She  had,  in  her  youthful  days,  served  in  a  like  ca- 
pacity in  some  aristocratic  houses  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland,  and  in  her  present  humbler  position 
gloried  in  reminiscences  of  this  brilliant  past.  HoJV 
often  have  Fred  and  I  looked  helplessly  at  each  other 
across  the  table,  when  "  Old  Lizzie,"  standing  behind 
Alain's  high-chair,  would  begin : 

"Baby,  don't  eat  with  your  fingers.  When  I  was 
living  with  Lord  John  Beresford  I  never  allowed — " 
Or  else,  "  Baby  boy,  now  don't  put  your  fist  in  your 
mouth.  Lady  Gwendolyn  Ermyntrude  Vere  de  Vere 
never  allowed  her  children,"  etc.,  etc.,  until  the  "late 
Lord  John  Beresford,  poor,  dear  man,  and  her  gracious 
Ladyship  "  became  haunting  personalities  to  us. 

One  day  Fred  facetiously  interrupted  her.  "What 
did  Lord  de  Liverus  allow  you  to  do  with  his  children 
when  you  were  living  with  him?" 

Horror-stricken,  and  touched  in  the  most  pious  corner 
of  her  soul,  Lizzie  rose  in  her  wrath  and  unsparingly 
rebuked  Fred  for  his  unseemly  levity. 

534 


A  DOFFED   CORONET 

Oh,  dear!  what  did  I  not  go  through!  I  had  a  Ger- 
man cook  who  got  shockingly  drunk  and  once  at- 
tempted my  life  with  a  frying-pan.  With  the  utmost 
difficulty — for  she  was  head  and  shoulders  taller  than 
I — I  prevented  her  from  accomplishing  her  nefarious 
intent  by  seizing  her  and  throwing  her  bodily  into  the 
laundry,  where  she  remained  in  durance  vile  until  the 
return  of  her  master. 

A  buxom  Swede  surreptitiously  gathered  about  her 
kitchen-hearth  seven  able-bodied  men  one  dark  win- 
ter night,  and  when  I  discovered  their  presence,  with 
touching  simplicity  presented  them  to  me  as  her  cous- 
ins "yoost  froom  de  oold  coontry!" 

A  worthy  Scotch  gardener,  in  whom  I  had  placed 
my  trust,  imbibed  the  wraters  of  his  native  land,  ran 
amuck  in  the  kitchen  and  still-rooms  late  one  Satur- 
day afternoon,  and,  having  put  his  fellow-servants  to 
flight,  afforded  me  the  undisputed  honor  of  evicting 
him,  riding-crop  in  hand. 

But  enough  of  this  enumeration  of  a  foreigner's  trials 
in  the  domain  of  Uncle  Sam,  although  I  am  sorely  tempt- 
ed to  relate  in  detail  the  story  of  the  colored  cook  who,  to 
the  pardonable  indignation  of  my  similarly  colored  but- 
ler, was  set  upon  by  a  discarded  suitor  in  my  kitchen, 
carved  liberally  with  a  razor,  and  tramped  almost  into 
smithereens.  Aroused  by  this  trifling  difference  of  opin- 
ion, I  was  met  in  the  lower  hall  by  a  flying  volley  of 
soda-water  bottles,  flat-irons,  and  lumps  of  coal  that  pur- 
sued the  assassin  from  the  house,  and,  not  understand- 
ing why  I  was  the  apparent  target  of  this  miscellaneous 
ammunition,  I  returned  it  in  kind  with  a  bronze  candle- 
stick I  was  carrying,  missing  the  butler,  and  smashing 
a  plate-glass  window  that  cost  me  ten  dollars  to  replace. 

I  am  sorry,  also,  that  I  lack  space  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  a  domestic  mutiny  occasioned  by  my  engaging 

535 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

the  services  of  a  queer,  old-looking  boy  of  fifteen  years 
of  age.  He  had  not  been  twenty-four  hours  in  the 
house  before  all  the  servants  rose  in  revolt  and  declined 
to  live  under  the  same  roof  with  a  "  play-actor/'  for  the 
new  acquisition  had  slipped  his  incognito,  and  appeared 
as  "  James  O'Brien,  the  Champion  Boy  Low  Comedian," 
with  a  collection  of  printed  hand-bills  and  posters  to 
substantiate  his  claim  to  fame.  I  bowed  to  the  will  of 
the  majority  and  dismissed  him,  but  first  asked  him 
why  he  had  forsaken  the  lucrative  ways  of  the  stage 
for  my  comparatively  unremunerative  service.  He  re- 
plied that  a  dramatic  career,  with  all  its  temptations, 
was  taking  him  straight  to  hell,  and  that  he  wished 
to  stop  somewhere  half-way  on  the  downward  track 
before  it  should  be  too  late.  I  wearily  concurred  in  his 
conception  of  my  residence  as  a  half-way  house  to 
Hades,  and  bade  him  farewell. 

Let  my  reader,  however,  be  consoled  by  the  cheering 
thought  that  subsequently  for  five  whole  years  I  enjoyed 
heavenly  peace,  thanks  to  the  advent,  one  by  one,  of 
four  exceptions  to  the  rule,  two  white  and  two  colored, 
who  by  their  devoted  and  cheerful  service  made  me 
wellnigh  forget  the  ill  deeds  of  their  predecessors. 

Let  him  also  remember  that  this  account  represents 
the  amusing  features  of  a  long  course  of  continual  wor- 
riment  and  petty  domestic  annoyance  which  formed 
part  of  my  day's  work  for  many  years. 

I  am  tired  of  cataloguing  in  these  last  pages  of  a 
long  record,  sorrows  and  troubles  of  all  hues  and  de- 
scriptions. Let  it  be,  therefore,  quite  en  passant  that 
I  mention,  for  the  sake  of  veracity,  the  thirteen  weeks 
which,  shortly  after  Fred's  recovery,  I  spent  in  the 
deathly  grip  of  meningitis,  the  agonized  days  I  passed 
watching  over  Alain  in  his  struggle  with  diphtheria, 
the  two  years  of  hard  work,  and  the  weeks  of  pain 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

which  elapsed  before  the  day  of  the  last  great  test  ar- 
rived, and  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e  informed  me  that  it  was  necessary 
I  should  undergo  a  surgical  operation  of  major  grade. 

I  had  long  since  done -with  shilly-shallying  and 
become  so  used  to  straight  facts  straightly  presented 
that  I  had  come  to  like  them  after  a  fashion,  and  on 
the  bright  May  day  when  I  journeyed  to  New  York  to 
hear  my  doom,  or  whatever  else  it  might  prove  to  be, 
within  the  four  walls  of  the  great  surgeon's  office  at  the 
pretty  little  private  hospital  which  he  had  recently 
built  within  two  doors  of  our  old  flat,  my  one  thought, 
I  may  say  in  justice  to  myself,  was  for  Fred,  who  sat 
at  my  side  in  the  train,  and  for  the  little  sailor  lad  now 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  an  English  tar's  uniform,  who 
leaned  against  his  knee  trying  to  assimilate  in  his  six- 
year-old  brain  matters  so  grim  that  they  were  puzzling 
wiser  heads  than  his  own. 

For  myself,  I  was  a  little  tired  of  the  fight,  and  rather 
more  occupied  with  the  difficult  feat  of  concealing  from 
them  the  wonderful  thinness  to  which  I  was  reduced, 
by  coquettishly  wrapping  about  myself  the  flounces  of 
an  ultra-chic  little  Parisian  lace  cape  than  in  puzzling 
over  a  future  which  I  had  long  guessed  might  be  of 
singularly  short  duration. 

The  beating  of  my  heart  may  have  been  a  little  more 
rapid  than  was  its  wont  when  I  stood  opposite  my 
faithful  doctor  after  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  sojourn  in 
his  surgery,  but,  after  all,  it  was  still  a  pretty  stout 
heart  from  old  Armorica. 

"  Got  collet  deusan  Armoriq,"*  as  they  put  it  out  there, 
and  my  voice  was  perfectly  steady  when  I  looked  up  in 
the  blue  eyes  that  had  just  then  a  little  more  than  their 
customary  kindness,  and  said,  quietly: 

*In  Breton,  this  means  either  "  It  was  a  hard  man  of  Armorica," 
or  "  It  was  a  stout  heart  of  Armorica." 

537 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

"I'd  like  to  know  just  exactly  where  I  stand,  and 
rely  upon  you  to  tell  me  the  truth,  pure  and  simple, 
without  any  fear  of  the  result." 

For  a  moment,  a  very  short  one,  the  steady  gaze 
wavered  and  grew  troubled.  Then,  laying  his  hand 
lightly  on  my  shoulder,  he  said,  slowly  and  with  ever 
so  slight  a  tremor: 

"I  respect  you  too  much  not  to  tell  you  the  truth. 
You  have  one  chance,  and  that  is,  an  operation  within 
four  weeks  from  now." 

Above  the  immaculately  precise  little  curtains  shroud- 
ing the  lower  portions  of  the  surgery  windows  a  dan- 
cing beam  of  sunlight  fell  like  a  flame  upon  a  tall 
bunch  of  gladioli  which  adorned  the  professional 
desk. 

"What  lovely  flowers  those  are!"  I  said.  "I  have 
always  had  a  particular  fancy  for  them.  May  I  take 
one?" 

The  doctor  abruptly  turned  his  back  upon  me.  It 
was  a  splendid  plan  to  concentrate  my  attention  upon  a 
pleasant  object  for  a  few  seconds,  and,  interpreting  his 
silence  as  consent,  I  took  a  step  towards  the  flowers, 
broke  off  one  of  the  glowing  spikes,  and  fastened  the 
satiny  blossoms  with  elaborate  care  in  my  dress.  When 
this  was  satisfactorily  accomplished  I  turned  once 
more  to  the  arbiter  of  my  fate. 

"  I  take  it  for  granted  that,  as  usual,  you  will  stand 
by  me." 

"Yes." 

"When  did  you  say  the  —  event  was  to  take 
place?" 

He  glanced  hurriedly  at  a  sheaf  of  notes  hanging 
on  a  silver  hook  near  the  window,  made  a  rapid  cal- 
culation, and  said,  simply:  "On  Sunday,  the  20th, 
at  ten  in  the  morning.  You  had  better  come  here 

538 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

for  the  operation.    I  will  give  you  the  best  room  in  the 
house." 

The  blossoms  at  my  breast  not  being  quite  yet  to 
my  liking,  I  shifted  them  a  little  and  pinned  them  more 
securely.  "Don't  think  me  ungrateful,"  I  said,  com- 
ing nearer  to  him  and  putting  my  hand  on  his  arm, 
"  but  I  would  sooner,  if  it  isn't  asking  too  much,  have  it 
done  at  home.  Afterwards,  you  know,  it  may  be  more 
comforting  for  Fred  and  Alain." 

"Very  well;  perhaps  you  are  right." 

I  turned  to  go. 

"  I  don't  thank  you,  because  you  will  understand  that 
thanks  would  have  to  be,  under  such  circumstances, 
very  well  presented,  which  would  surpass  my  present 
abilities." 

He  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  bent  over  an  open 
case  of  instruments,  which  he  contemplated  with  ab- 
sorbing attention. 

"  Especially, "  I  continued,  "  as  I  have  one  more  favor 
to  ask  of  you,  which  is,  not  to  tell  Fred,  however  search- 
ingly  he  may  question  you,  the — gravity  of  the  situa- 
tion. He  would  feel  it — well,  hard,  and  there  is  no 
earthly  use  of  making  him  anticipate  the  worst.  Make 
light  of  it  as  much  as  you  conscientiously  can.  It 
will  be  a  great  help  to  me. " 

"By  Gad,  you  are — well,  you  are — " 

"Oh,  never  mind  that,"  I  interrupted.  "What  tonic 
did  you  mention?  It's  best  just  for  a  few  moments 
longer  to  attend  to  minor  details,"  and,  without  waiting 
for  an  answer,  I  opened  the  door  and  walked  into  the 
central  hall,  where  Fred  sat,  rigidly,  beside  Alain,  who 
was  playing  with  the  huge  Persian  cat,  the  pet  of  the 
house.  I  walked  quickly  to  the  group  and  said,  with 
a  little  laugh,  of  which  I  was  afterwards  somewhat 
proud : 

539 


A  DOFFED  CORONET 

"Good  news  can  wait,  so  let  us  bid  au  revoir  to 
this  busy  man  here,  whose  time  I  have  already  quite 
sufficiently  encroached  upon." 

Fred  looked  up,  with  dawning  relief.  "  Is  that  true?" 
he  said,  addressing  the  doctor. 

"Well,"  replied  my  fellow-conspirator,  "of  course  it's 
too  bad  that  this  should  have  come  to  pass,  but,  with 
such  vitality  and  pluck  as  this  little  girl  possesses, 
there  is  no  cause  for  apprehension  in  the  ordinary  run 
of  things.  She  will  tell  you  herself  all  about  it,  for  the 
surgical  profession  has  lost  a  great  deal  by  her  being  a 
woman,  and  she  can  explain  quite  as  well  as  I  what  is 
amiss,  and  what  we  have  decided." 

I  held  out  my  hand,  which  was  grasped  with  such 
unexpected  force  that  my  fingers  ached  for  an  hour 
after,  and  so  we  walked  out  into  the  sunshine  and 
animation  of  the  great  city  which  had  seen  so  many 
tides  in  the  affairs  of  my  life. 

Alas,  all  our  Machiavellian  precautions  went  for 
nothing,  for  a  few  days  later  Fred,  meeting  by  chance 
one  of  Dr.  W  .  .  .  e's  assistants,  was  told  brutally  the 
secret  we  had  so  jealously  guarded,  and  when  he  came 
back  that  night  one  glance  at  his  face  showed  me 
that  that  little  game  was  up,  and  that  the  following 
weeks  would  be  something  in  the  nature  of  a  death- 
watch. 

The  Archbishop  helped  me  wonderfully  through  what 
remained  for  me  to  undergo.  Indefatigably,  heeding 
neither  wind  nor  weather,  he  came  out  from  the  city 
time  and  time  again,  bringing  to  bear  upon  our 
stricken  little  home  the  consolations  of  his  office  with 
such  delicacy  of  touch  and  such  high-bred  compre- 
hension of  the  difficulties  hedging  him  in  on  all  sides 
that  it  must  be  hoped  that  his  recompense  is  now  in 
proportion  to  his  deeds. 

540 


"  MY  AMERICAN   HOME" 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

I  did  not  see  Dr.  W .  .  .  e  again  until  the  sombre, 
tempestuous  morning  when  he  and  five  more  of  his 
calling  drove  through  pelting  rain  to  the  rocky  point 
whereon  our  house  stood  and  against  which  great 
waves  were  furiously  dashing. 

His  quick,  energetic  step  sounded  on  the  stairs  with 
something  reassuring  in  its  elasticity,  and  in  a  moment 
he  was  in  the  room  where,  standing  at  the  window,  I 
watched  the  white  breakers  chasing  each  other  up  the 
beach. 

Neither  of  us  spoke  until  the  click  of  steel  and  the 
rolling  into  place  of  furniture,  together  with  subdued 
footfalls  in  the  next  room,  made  it  imperative  for  him 
to  break  the  silence  of  the  one  in  which  we  were.  Far 
be  it  from  me  to  pose  as  a  heroine,  for  I  am  nothing  of 
the  kind;  but,  strange  to  say,  in  a  twinkling  all  my 
gloomy  thoughts  took  flight  like  a  flock  of  ill-omened 
birds,  and,  turning  eagerly  to  my  companion,  I  said, 
almost  cheerfully:  "Let  me  look.  Let  me  see  what 
they  are  doing.  It  will  distract  my  mind,  and  you 
know  well  it  isn't  that  of  which  I  am  afraid." 

"Do  as  you  please,"  he  replied,  with  a  little  shrug. 
"I'm  never  very  professional  with  you." 

I  picked  up  the  long  skirt  of  my  peignoir,  and,  fol- 
lowed by  him,  walked  into  the  middle  of  the  busy  circle 
in  the  large,  airy  room  where  the  denouement  of  this 
little,  private  drama  was  to  take  place.  Their  stupefac- 
tion made  me  smile,  for  I  had  quite  disassociated  myself 
from  the  whole  thing,  and  yet  I  could  not  help  saying, 

"  What  a  lot  of  big  men  it  takes  to  cut  up  one  small 
woman!" 

There  was  a  general  gasp,  and  the  senior  member 
of  that  surgical  council  advanced  almost  threateningly 
towards  us.  "  For  Heaven's  sake,  Dr.  W .  .  .  e,  take 
her  away!"  he  said,  waving  me  off  excitedly. 


A   DOFFED    CORONET 

"Why?  She  says  it  diverts  her  thoughts!  You 
don't  know  the  breed,  my  good  fellow.  She  is  not  an 
ordinary  patient. " 


Unkraut  verdirbt  nicht,  says  the  German,  with  his 
usual  sagacity  and  directness,  and  I  must  therefore 
take  it  that  I  belong  to  the  weed  family,  for  I  did  not 
die,  as  could  reasonably  have  been  expected  that  I 
should ;  in  fact,  the  doctor,  who  remained  in  charge  of 
me  for  two  weeks  afterwards,  declared,  "  Should  your 
husband  ever  wish  to  get  rid  of  you  he  would  have  to 
use  a  battle-axe." 

Indeed,  I  recovered  with  marvellous  rapidity,  and  even 
reached  the  point  where  I  began  to  be  quite  proud  of 
the  charmed  life  I  had  borne.  I  had  taken,  however, 
such  a  dislike  for  our  home  by  the  Sound,  since  the 
many  troubles  we  had  had  there,  that  we  soon  after- 
wards gave  it  up.  After  sojourning  in  New  York  for 
a  time,  we  finally  decided  to  rent  on  a  term  of  years  a 
quaint  and  rambling  stone  house  covered  with  ivy  and 
creepers,  which  for  over  a  century  has  crowned  a  knoll 
commanding  a  lovely  prospect  of  undulating  plains 
and  densely  wooded  hills. 

A  number  of  small  legacies  had  meanwhile  fallen  to 
my  share,  which,  although  too  insignificant  to  rein- 
state us  in  our  former  European  position,  yet  were  of 
sufficient  importance  to  give  us  comparative  ease  and 
affluence. 

Large  paddocks  and  verdant  meadows,  which  formed 
part  of  the  estate,  seemed,  moreover,  providentially 
adapted  to  the  prosecution  of  my  still  cherished  pur- 
pose, and  there,  one  glorious  October  day,  we  settled 

542 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

down  in  this  last  and  dearest  of  our  American  homes 
— an  ideal  one,  indeed. 

Every  animal  in  my  stables,  byres,  or  kennels — nay, 
the  very  pigeons  circling  above  the  verdure-garlanded 
roofs,  my  vegetable-garden,  my  orchard,  even  the  little 
brook  gurgling  and  bubbling  at  the  end  of  the  past- 
ures beneath  tall  pollard-willows  and  wild-cherry  trees, 
were  sources  of  continual  and  absorbing  interest  to  me. 

I  was  proud,  too,  of  my  flowers,  blossoming  all  sum- 
mer long  in  the  numerous  parterres  intersecting  the 
lawns,  and  filling  with  fragrance  throughout  the  win- 
ter the  conservatory  upon  which  the  library  windows 
opened. 

Our  little  bark  had  passed,  unharmed,  through  many 
breakers,  and  I  now  confidently  trusted  that  we  had 
guided  it  to  a  safe  and  stormless  anchorage. 

Then,  as  the  grim,  gray  dawning  touched 

The  sneering  seas  with  white, 
A  voice  came  back  from  the  reeling  prow, 
"  Be  of  good  cheer,  O  helmsman ;  now 

I  see  the  harbor  light  1" 


L'ENVOI 

MY  task  is  brought  to  a  close  here!  Its  lights  and 
shadows  fill  my  horizon  with  sweet  and  bitter  remem- 
brances almost  equally  dear  to  me.  Perchance,  by 
recording  in  the  preceding  pages  so  many  sombre  and 
intimate  personal  incidents,  I  have  laid  myself  open  to 
hostile  criticism,  and  yet,  could  my  reader  realize  how 
difficult  it  is  to  check  one's  self  when  once  started  upon 
the  steep  slope  of  reminiscence,  he  would  pause  in  his 
judgment  and  deal  leniently  with  me. 

I  will  leave  behind  in  this  country — which  has  been 
hospitable  and  kindly  to  me  —  many  pleasant  and 
happy  hours,  and  will  with  deep  regret  lose  sight  of 
the  friends  to  whom  I  must  say  "Good-bye."  Yet  on 
my  way  I  take  the  three  great  factors  of  my  happiness 
— Fred,  the  ever  loyal  and  loving  companion  of  my 
life ;  Alain,  my  pride  and  my  joy ;  and  Rex,  this  other 
son  of  ours  whom  we  have  adopted  and  taken  to  our 
hearts,  and  whose  whole-souled  devotion  has  been  of 
so  rare  a  kind  that  it  seems  hopeless  and  vain  to  try 
and  describe  it. 

My  longing  for  Europe,  for  the  old,  gay,  careless 
days,  has  lost  much  of  its  keenness,  although  Brittany 
is  now  and  as  ever,  unchangeably,  my  bourne.  Death 
has  mown  freely  through  the  ranks  of  those  dear  to 
me,  and  I  will  never  quite  recover  from  that  greatest 
and  most  irreparable  loss  of  all  which,  with  the  crushing 
brutality  of  a  thunder-bolt,  befell  me — that  of  my  Em- 
press. My  thoughts  of  her,  Rex  has  expressed  as  I 

544 


A   DOFFED   CORONET 

could  not  have  expressed  them  myself,  in  some  exqui- 
site lines,  written  on  the  last  anniversary  of  her  tragic 
death.  With  these  I  end  my  story,  after  the  manner  of 
those  old  monkish  writers  who  were  wont  to  close  their 
manuscript  with  a  prayer  for  the  blessing  of  the  Saints, 
offering  to  the  one  to  whom  I  owe  so  much  of  the  little 
good  there  is  in  me,  an 

INVOCATION 

Oh  when,  on  nights  most  calm  and  beautiful, 
Shine  forth  the  silent  stars  all  graciously, 
Wilt  thou  bring  peace,  as  doth  their  lustre,  laying 
Pale  hands  of  quiet  on  the  heaving  sea? 

Revisit  thy  beloved,  all  the  pain 
Of  sundering  years,  of  loss  itself,  withdrawn; 
Light  with  thine  eyes  old  faithfulness  again, 
And  touch  new  splendor  in  the  brightness  gone! 

Or  if,  from  far  beyond  that  happy  bourne 
Thou  com'st  not,  send  sweet  influences,  that  may, 
Like  those  dim  heralds  of  the  lingering  morn, 
Whisper  my  darkness  of  a  distant  day. 

Grant  me  that  strength  which  most  of  all  I  prize, 
To  draw  my  pathway  to  the  utmost  verge, 
Straight,  calm,  and  moveless  as  the  moon-glade  lies, 
Throned  on  the  wild  manes  of  the  tossing  surge. 

So  shall  I  rest,  and  stay  the  impatient  feet 
That  yearn  unceasingly  towards  thee  now. 
Sweet  Spirit,  guard  me!  for  I  fain  would  greet 
As  royally  the  Messenger  as  thou. 


THE  END 


A    001428200 


1111111  illinium  iimi  miiiimi  Hi  mm  ii  tmm\  IIIMI 


r^^  . 


